Alliance, Ohio - August 23, 2017

Well this last week was amazing! I already sent some pictures out, but Brent and Aimee and Cody and Justin all got baptized on Saturday evening! It started a little bit late, but that's okay because better late than never, right? There were some clothing malfunctions but it was all worked out and we had probably the worst piano player ever there to play! Oh wait, that was me. No, it was good. There were some great talks that got Aimee crying, and she is not a crier, so that's saying something. For the actual baptisms, I baptized the youngest son, Justin, Elder Coppieters baptized the older son, Cody, and then a member here in the ward that knows the family baptized Brent and Aimee, so there was a lot of in and out of the font for everyone to get it all done. There were also some slips going down in, luckily not by me, because who would have thought that plastic steps covered in water would be slippery? It was good though, gave everyone some laughs before. Every baptism is amazing, but being able to actually participate in the baptizing and have it be an entire family getting baptized all together made it even more special! Now we just have to get more people to that point and keep working hard! The confirmations were done on Sunday as well, and the person that baptized each person also did the confirmations, so I was able to confirm Justin! That was a cool experience to be able to do. We also talked with Cody about going on a mission in a couple of years, and he said that him and his mom have talked about it and he will think about it, and we are going to start taking him teaching with us now that he has been baptized! It's something that his mom wants us to do, so it's for sure going to happen and hopefully help him have the desire to serve a mission in a few years!

 

The remainder of this week is going to be crazy! We have exchanges with the zone leaders tomorrow, then zone conference on Friday, and then going to Kirtland with Brad on Saturday, so just packed crazy full with everything. He is still doing well and was at church again on Sunday, just working on getting him reading from the Book of Mormon again and living the Word of Wisdom. Those are the big things for him.

 

Just a quick update on Lynn, she was planning on coming to the baptism on Saturday and church on Sunday, but then she had other things come up Saturday night and her brother wanted her to go to church with him on Sunday, so she did that instead. But we had a clothing giveaway at the church on Saturday before the baptism that she came to so we were able to give her a tour of the church and show her some of the different rooms there and talk a little bit more about what church is like. It was the first time I've ever given a church tour, but it was good. We just found out last night that she has gone to the hospital because she had ammonia or pneumonia, her niece wasn't really sure what was wrong, so keep her in your prayers! Other than that, things are going great here in Alliance!

 

Have a good week!

Love Elder Woodward

 

Alliance, Ohio - August 16, 2017

Well this week was a pretty eventful week. Lots of good things happened and we've been making some good progress with everyone. I don't know if I had mentioned this before, but Brent and Aimee had been trying to decide if they wanted their youngest son, Justin, baptized with the rest of the family. He's 10 and so we were encouraging it for the whole family, but they just weren't sure because they were saying that he's mentally like a 6 year old. We had talked to them quite a bit about it, we talked to the Jarvises about it, and we were just hoping that they would decide to do it. Then on Friday we met to talk to them about some of the scheduling for the baptism and asked them about what they were thinking and they said that they both talked to Justin separately and he said that he wants to be baptized and Brent and Aimee both talked about it together and they decided that it would be more harmful for him if he wasn't baptized with the rest of the family, so they are going forward with it. But they all had their interviews and they are all good to go. So we are still planning on this Saturday if everything goes according to plan.

 

We have been doing some service at one of the members' house lately because he is completely redoing all of his house, so it has been some full blown demolition there! It's been fun, reminds me of my first area when we helped a less active there doing a lot of the same stuff. It's always fun to do a little bit of different work when the opportunity arises for us.

 

Brad is doing well and still working on the Word of Wisdom. We planned a trip to Kirtland with him and that's coming up on the 26th of August. We have just been going through the commandments with him and teaching  him more and more. He has been progressing and still working towards baptism in September, so I will keep you updated on everything that happens with him in the near future!

 

Our other investigator Lynn is doing really well. We met with her last week and just read from the Book of Mormon with her and she is understanding it all and loving it. She loves when we come over and we have been able to see her changing in just the short time that we have been going and meeting with her. We were there again last night with our Relief Society President again and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and committed her to be baptized and set a date for October 14. She was really excited for it because she has never been baptized before and since she is coming to know the Book of Mormon is true, she has that desire. The lesson went really well with her and the RS President said she would pick her up for the baptism on Saturday and then also pick her up for church on Sunday, so she should be coming to both of those this weekend. Things are looking good for her and we are excited for it all!

 

No pictures this week, didn't take any so don't have any to send. There will be some in two weeks though.

 

Love Elder Woodward

Alliance, Ohio - August 9, 2017

Well, how's everyone doing? Life is going good out here for us in Alliance and the work is all going well. Nothing too crazy happened out here this last week, so I'm just gonna start from last week and go from there :)

 

So we made it down to the temple last Thursday! Woke up at 5:30 in the morning, had a good breakfast at the Fisher's and then drove down to the temple and made it there by 9:30. It's about a two and a half hour drive down from where we are, so there was a lot of driving with our day. We got there early enough to take some pictures before we all looked like wet dogs, and then went to do baptisms in the temple. It's been such a long time since I have done baptisms for the dead and it was and is always an amazing experience to be in the temple and doing that work. Everyone had a good time down there, and the recent convert of the sisters in our ward even said that when the youth go down for a temple trip she wants to go with them and go as soon as she can again! Just a good day spent with the Fishers and being at the temple. We made it home around 4 in the afternoon after getting some lunch down in Columbus, and we saw some missionaries that are serving in that mission driving like crazies out on the road, one of which I went to high school with. Small world out there.

 

We are still moving along with Brent and Aimee and their family. They were at church again on Sunday and after (since it was fast Sunday) we had a feast with them and the Jarvises. There was bacon cheeseburgers, ribs, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and watermelon provided by both families and it was all so good! I definitely ate more than I should have, but it's okay

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 We taught them about fasting and tithing which we have talked about before at church so it was more just a review, but they were both fasting on Sunday because they knew that it was fast Sunday. It was cool to hear that they were doing it already knew of the importance of it. They are still good to go for the 19th and we are working with them on the last few things that we need to teach them, so all is well.

 

Brad is still making good progress. He wasn't at church on Sunday, but we have made a plan for him to work on the Word of Wisdom with, and he is going to do it. And probably later this month we are planning on taking him up to Kirtland with the Fishers, so that can help him as well in his journey.

 

Everything is just going really well right now for us. We met with Lynn again on Monday with our Relief Society President and kept teaching her and went over the Plan of Salvation. At the end of the lesson, she didn't have questions and she really liked what we talked about. Things are going really well with her and she is always super happy to see us when we visit.

 

There's some pictures from when President Uchtdorf came and it's the entire mission. I'm on the very top row third from the left. It's easier to see in one of the pictures instead of the other. But ya. Good times.

 

That's all for this week. Love Elder Woodward

 

Alliance, Ohio - August 2, 2017

This has been a very long week. Every time we have transfers and preparation day is moved, the next week just seems like it drags on forever! Just puts you out of the normal rhythm of missionary work and you gotta get back into it. So, new companion, new information for ya. My new companion is Elder Coppieters (Co'-pee-ters, just kind of ignore the i in the middle of his name) and he is from Brigham City, Utah. He just graduated high school this year and came out right after that, so he is 18. He has a huge family of one older sister and one older brother who just got back from his mission on Monday, so they won't see each other for four years, and you think two is bad! Didn't play sports in high school, but is a crazy computer genius and built three computers before he came out on his mission, so he knows a lot more about that than I ever will, and he wants to be a computer scientist when he gets home from his mission. He's doing well for only being here a week, and training is always just so much fun! :)

 

But now on to the week. I can't even remember what has happened because so much has happened. We've been meeting with a ton of our investigators and have been making really good progress with them all, especially Brad. He is doing crazy well, had intensive surgery on his foot on Friday, came to the ward picnic we had on Saturday and played frisbee there, and then was at church with his bloody foot on Sunday. That's some serious dedication there if you ask me. We met with him a few times, talked about the gospel, talked about Kirtland which he wants to go to, talked more about the gospel, and then also had family home evening at the Fishers on Monday with s'mores. He is doing really well and really wants to work towards the 16th of September, so we are going for it with him. We did some service at his place emptying out his basement because it flooded a little bit, and got rid of a bunch of crap. It was fun though.

 

We had a ward picnic on Saturday and surprisingly for the end of July it wasn't hot at all. It was probably mid 70's with a nice breeze all day, so compared to last year when we had a heat advisory it was a much welcomed difference. Had some good food, had quite a few investigators show up, so it was all really good.

 

We've still been able to find a few people to teach the last couple days, and we received a referral which doesn't happen too often here in Alliance! Her name is Lynn and we went over to meet her and take her the Bible that she requested. Long story short, she is going through some hard times and is looking for more in her life. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and how it is similar to the Bible and she said that she would start reading it. We went over again last night to see how her reading had been going and if she had been able to pray about the Book of Mormon, and she read through a few pages and had prayed about it. She said that she felt something she had never felt  before as she was reading and praying and knew that it was from God, and that as she was reading she had no desire to smoke for that time. She is currently working on quitting smoking, and for that brief time while she was reading she didn't even want to smoke. There is so much power in the Book of Mormon it's crazy! Gotta love it.

 

We are going to the temple tomorrow with Cassidy Fisher and the recent convert that the sisters in our ward have to do baptisms, so that's going to be a ton of fun! There will be some pictures next week from it, so you can plan on some for next week as well. It's gonna be good. Also sending some pictures from transfers and Kirtland last week, me and elder Amparan in front of our blue car, and me and Elder Coppieters on his first day. So now you can see how blue the car really is.

 

Love, Elder Woodward