Youngstown, Ohio - October 25, 2017

Well hello there! Before I forget, I'm going to send my new address so no one has an excuse to not send me anything:

 

1917 Youll St #20

Niles, OH 44446

 

It feels like it's been forever since just last week, but things have been going really well here in Youngstown. Just a little more information from transfers last week so you know what's going on out here. If you didn't get it the last time, I got transferred up to the Youngstown Ward as a Zone Leader and Elder Coppieters stayed behind back in Alliance now that his training is done. His new companion's name is Elder Parra and he is actually from the Dominican Republic. It's only about a 45 minute drive from my last apartment to this one, so it's not that far away. As a zone leader, we might get to go on exchanges with the Alliance elders. We are supposed to go on an exchange every week and we are supposed to go with all the district leaders in the zone, but there's only four district leaders and six weeks a transfer, so there will be two other companionships that we go with, so maybe the Alliance elders. Not sure yet. My new companion is Elder Klinglesmith and he is from Roy, Utah. He's the oldest of three kids in his family, so pretty much a normal sized family, not like us even though we are awesome! He's got two transfers left, so I'll most likely be his last companion. We only cover about an eighth of the ward and there is a set of sisters in the ward that covers all the Pennsylvania side of the ward and some of the Ohio side. It's good though because we have a lot of work to be doing and not a lot of time to be doing it! I have been in Youngstown a couple of times on exchanges the last couple of transfers, and the first few days still felt like it was just an exchange and not my real area. Youngstown itself is about the size of Ogden, but it just has a big downtown area, and we also cover the cities of Girard, Niles, and Austintown. The ward is a typical size for Ohio, lots of older folk, but also some young guns in the area, so there's a good mix. It's going to be fun out here, I'm just glad I'm not right on the lake like I was for last winter. Oh, and we have a truck instead of bikes. Before you ask, no, we have not got in a wreck yet. 

 

As for the rest of the week, we had a little bit of an unexpected adventure. We got a call from the Mission President telling us that there were some elders in the zone that had a baptism but didn't fill out any of the paperwork for the baptism, and the missionary that did the interview had been transferred to another area without ever signing the baptismal record. So on Friday we had to drive to meet one set of elders half way (luckily it wasn't too far away) and have the one that did the interview sign a record, and then on Saturday we had to drive half way to the elders that had the baptism to give them the record so they could get it all filled out and set up to the mission office. So lots of craziness during my first couple of days here. We also had exchanges on Saturday, so after only being here for a few days I was taking over the area and trying to get work done still even though I didn't know where the crud I was or where I was going. It was fun though. Going to be strange going on exchanges every week, sometimes twice a week depending on what's going on because we go with the assistants and we also have to go with our district leader in his area. 

 

I don't even remember what my last update in Alliance was about, but it wasn't fun having to say bye to everyone there. You live somewhere for only six months but just learn to love everyone there and then in just a few days you are gone. Luckily, I'm not that far away and so at stake conference in February I will get to see a lot of them again, so that's a bonus for still staying in the east part of Ohio. Hopefully Brad continues to progress and is able to be baptized in December, and hopefully the work goes well in that area as well. 

 

As for Youngstown, the work here is going well. We helped a family (the elders quorum and relief society president) move on Thursday, can't remember what we did on Friday, had exchanges on Saturday, church Sunday in a new ward, and I also can't remember what we did Monday or Tuesday. We have two people, Mike and Jenn Campbell who are preparing to be baptized next Saturday the 4th of November. They were a referral from a long time ago, met with missionaries but it just wasn't the right time for them, but they never stopped reading the Book of Mormon. Mike has read the entire thing over 20 times and read the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price 4 times all just since February. They decided they wanted to meet with the missionaries again and referred themselves and said that this time is just feels different and they are ready to be baptized. They are already preparing to go to the temple even though that's a little down the road, but from what I've heard they have made some incredible changes. They have already had their interview and are good to go, we are just waiting for next Saturday to roll around. It was going to be this upcoming Saturday, but the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader are both going to be out of town so it was decided to push the baptism back. There's a few other people that we are working with, one of them being a ten year old daughter of some less active parents in the ward and the daughter, Kyra, and her mom were both at church on Sunday which was the first time that they had been there in a very long time! Things are going really well here and there's a ton of less actives that we see as well. Still getting some time in to go tracting, but it's been a good first week. We've got a lot going on this week as well starting with a Trunk-or-Treat tonight, so it's going to be great! Can't really think of anything else to type, so I'll just end it here :)

 

Love,

Elder Woodward

 

In case you have already forgot, or just as a reminder, the address once again is 

1917 Youll St #20

Niles, OH 44446

Also throwing this in here because a member said it last night in a lesson we had and I loved it: 
"God does the impossible when we do the possible."

 

Here's some pictures for you since I haven't sent any in a while and actually took some last week:

--At the temple with Brother Fisher

--Part of the Davis family (the picture describes them perfectly)

--The Virdens after dinner at Texas Roadhouse

--Last time with all the Fishers

--Last district meeting in Alliance

--Elder Klinglesmith and I like ten minutes ago

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alliance, Ohio - October 17, 2017

Hey everyone, just got back from the temple and don't have a ton of time to email, so just updating you all on transfer news. I'm going to be staying in the stake and getting shipped up to the big city of Youngstown to be a Zone Leader up there. Still just continuing my trek out further and further east, but not by much this time around. Sad to be leaving Alliance and had to say lots of goodbyes, but it is what it is. My new companion is going to be Elder Klinglesmith and he only has two transfers left, so I will likely be his last companion and killing him off. I'll make sure to include some pictures next week and the next email will be a lot longer, just don't have time like I said. Love you all!

 

Elder Woodward

 

PS I played the organ in church as well and everyone loved it. Too bad I wasn't doing it sooner.

Alliance, Ohio - October 11, 2017

Ok well I don't have a ton of time because I was emailing a bunch of other people instead of writing this big group email. Time management is not one of my strengths. But this last week went by way too quickly. Last week we kind of had a district activity and went to the find the steeple in the church building and had to do some exploring, and there's a picture included of us under the steeple. Also, notice my awesome Hawaiian shirt that was completely free that I decided to wear. 

 

We had zone conference last week and it was sooooo good! Last time it was more just of a review of a lot of things, but this time there was a lot of good stuff that we learned and went over. Last time around, President Brown challenged all the missionaries to memorize the Living Christ, and I actually did it and it wasn't as hard as I thought it was to do. Such an amazing document with so many things you can learn from it. If you haven't read through it recently, I would suggest that you do so!

 

When the weeks go by as fast as they do, it's hard to even remember what we did. We had exchanges yesterday with the Rootstown elders and Elder Runger and I did some service (and included some pictures) of raking some leaves at the Fishers and then of course lighting them on fire. That was a fun experience because we didn't have matches or a lighter, just gasoline and we had to find a way to start it. Had to use what little brains we have to figure out how to do it. Luckily we did as you can see in the pictures. 

 

So last week since Brad had a warrant out for his arrest, he finally decided to get it taken care of from five years ago. He was scared to death of what might happen, like him going to jail for an unknown amount of time, but all that he has is some community service and a fine he has to pay, and then a pre-trial at the end of November. So the community service needs to be completed and the fine needs to be paid before he can be baptized, so we had to move his date back to the beginning of December. I most likely won't be here for it since transfers are next week which is kind of disappointing, but it will be better for him to wait a little bit and be more prepared. He was been doing well with everything lately, just a little relapses here and there with smoking, but only smokes one cigarette and feels bad for it. He's feeding us dinner, so we are going to be seeing him tonight. 

 

Just a reminder that next week is transfers, so we are going to be emailing on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, but it will be later in the day because we are also going to the temple. If anyone was planning on sending anything in the next couple of days, send it to the mission office so we can be sure that I get it! Here's the address: 25002 Westwood Rd, Westlake OH 44145 and I will update you with my new address after I get there if I do get transferred!

 

Since this is a shorter email I put some pictures in there because they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so just imagine a few thousand more words on this email ;)

 

Love ya!

Elder Woodward

 

 

 

Alliance, Ohio - October 4, 2017

Looks like I made it through September as well. Only 13 days left in Alliance unless President decides to pull a quick one and leave me here even longer. The days are getting shorter and my time is winding down, and I really don't want to leave. I loved my first area, but I think this area takes the cake with some of the members that are out here and everything that has happened since I've been here. It's gonna go by quickly and then I'll be trudging through the snow somewhere else.

 

This last week went by way too fast! It feels like just yesterday that we were emailing, but that's what happens when you have General Conference! All the talks were so good, but other than Elder Holland (because who doesn't love Elder Holland) the one talk that I really liked didn't even come from the Quorum of the Twelve. It was Tad R Callister's talk about the Book of Mormon. I don't know why, I just loved his talk, just reaffirming that the Book of Mormon is true and there's nothing else about it. So good. We were able to watch all the sessions of it, one at our Ward Mission Leader's house, two at the church, and then both sessions at the Fisher's on Sunday. Always amazing when you get to listen to conference. Sad to hear about Elder Hales passing but it was kind of strange how we found out. We were talking about how old each of the apostles are and so we were having the Fishers look it up at their house, and when it got to Elder Hales, wikipedia said that he had died and we were super confused. (This was like ten minutes before the last session of conference started.) Then we went to lds.org and it had more about him dying, so we knew it was for reals. He hasn't been in good health for a long time, so it wasn't too surprising. We got Brad to watch conference on Sunday at the Fishers, so he is doing well, and we got to have lots of food at the Fishers during the entire thing. Gonna miss them when I leave. 

 

Anyways, on to the rest of the week and the answer to the question in the subject line. So on Friday (you probably already saw pictures of it) but there was a member in our ward that had a service project of removing the shingles from their house so we went to help them out and do some demolition because who doesn't love that? We were the first ones there and after not too long there were a bunch of people that showed up to help, so I thought it was going to go by really quickly. And then I realized that the youngest person besides us and the Bishop was far beyond the age that should be removing shingles on a house. Of the 10 people there, only 3 were under the age of 50 and two of them were us. So how many high priests does it take to remove the shingles from house? Probably about 100 because they will all be sitting on the roof talking as they try to get their old bodies straightened out after being bent over for so long. After half the roof was done, all but four left, so it was us and the Bishop and one other guy (up in his 70's) to pull off the entire other side of the roof, and it surprisingly went by a lot faster than when there were more people there. We just went to town on the shingles and ripped them off, and then the clean up as well. As soon as we get all the shingles off, what happens? Yep, it decides to rain. Ohio has this weird thing when it rains that it will be like 10 minute micro-bursts and then just stop raining, so that happened and started soaking stuff. By the time we got tarps out, the ten minutes was over and it stopped raining. It made it fun though. Lots of sore muscles the next day, but luckily it was General Conference!

 

Well some sad news about Brad, he didn't make some good decisions over the weekend so we are probably going to wait for him to be baptized. He hasn't been smoking any cigarettes for over two weeks now, just other things are getting in the way so it's going to be after I leave that he gets baptized. And he's got a warrant out for his arrest that he needs to get taken care of and he is planning on doing it this week. Takes some time to break some old habits, so it's best to just not get into them in the first place. 

 

Love, 

Elder Woodward

 

Some pictures of the roof service. Notice how green Ohio is if you've never been.