Youngstown, Ohio - December 20, 2017

I found this new song that has become my favorite over the last couple of weeks with Christmas coming up. So go watch it. Here's a link: https://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/videos/twelve-days-of-christmas-count-von-count-organ-solo.html     It's the best version of the 12 days of Christmas I have ever heard. 

 

But on to the rest of the week. So last week I was talking about how much it snowed on Tuesday, and then also on Thursday it snowed a whole bunch. We had a couple of inches and I was very excited that it was going to be a White Christmas. And then the weekend rolled around. Saturday was in the high 30's, Sunday was in the 40's and raining, Monday was also in the 40's, and then yesterday was flipping up in the 50's! Needless to say, all that snow that came just in time for Christmas is no longer here. So it looks like we are going to have a green Christmas this year as well. Kind of bummed, but it doesn't look like there is going to be anymore snow fall out here in the next couple of days, and over the weekend it's supposed to be in the 40's again, so not much chance if you ask me. But since it has warmed up a little bit, it has made it extremely nice. 

 

Yesterday we had our mini Christmas Conference/Zone Conference and it turned out really well. Lots of good food to start it off which is always good, and then a great meeting. Lots of Christmas music, lots of special musical numbers, lots of good singing, lots of also really bad singing but good none the less, lots of miracles because we got a book of miracles from all the missionaries in the mission. It was just a good day, and it was warm so nobody was freezing as cars were being inspected and making sure they are working. President and Sister Brown are awesome as always. No crazy news coming from it, but still good. 

 

We were able to see Callei this last week again after we had dinner with her grandparents and were able to really start teaching her and set a baptismal date for January 20th, the weekend after stake conference. I love that whole family with all the little kids. One thing I've learned is that teaching kids is so much more difficult than teaching adults. We were teaching about the Plan of Salvation Sunday after church and were talking about the kingdoms of Glory and how they are compared to the sun, moon, and stars, and the smartest of them all raises her hand and starts to say, "but the sun is a star" and then her grandma cut her off and let us keep going haha. Kids are great. But for reals, one of the brothers of Callei is the cutest kid ever and always waves when he sees us now and it's my favorite thing ever. I love that family. 

 

Did some service shoveling snow that all melted, but it was still nice to do some service, also helped at a member's house that we have been helping at the last couple of weeks to get it cleaned up and get the furnace hooked up, had the wonderful opportunity of being voluntold to play the piano at the Ward Christmas Party (voluntold=volunteered+told, an extremely common occurrence as missionaries). Did some more service helping some members move stuff up out of the basement of their parents who one is in a nursing home and the other passed away, and we have been doing a ton of finding recently. President Brown is making a big push for everyone to do at least 2 hours of finding every day, between 4 and 6 and then having dinner at 6 because having dinner at 5 was really inconvenient because then it would be dark and people out here just automatically go to bed as soon as it gets dark and refuse to answer the door, even if it is only 6:30. So that got changed around starting on Monday and things have been going well and we've been able to talk to a lot more people than we had before and we've been able to find quite a few potentials to go along with it. 

 

Other than that, things are good! We will talk on Monday, and won't be able to email next Wednesday! Love you!

 

Elder Woodward

Youngstown, Ohio - December 13, 2017

So Christmas is only two weeks away. That itself is crazy. And three days after Christmas is my 6 month left mark (I'll be flying home on June 28th unless they change how they do it), and that is crazy as well. Also, Christmas is going to be preparation day, so that means no emailing that next Wednesday on the 27th. Remember that. Sad news, but no, the mission isn't going to be doing any mission conference like it did last year. It was all planned out and it was going to happen, but then Elder Gong who is the area seventy over the North America Northeast area doesn't want full mission conferences to be happening anymore, so it was cancelled. I don't know if it came from the mission department or just Elder Gong, but they don't really want the missionaries gathering together as much anymore, so it's not happening which is sad because that is part of what makes this mission so great, being in Kirtland for a Christmas conference. But instead of just not doing anything at all, the zone conferences for this transfer are going to be just about the exact same thing as last year, just in each zone instead of with the whole mission. It's still going to be good and that is happening next week.

 

I'm sure you can tell by the subject line, but it finally snowed here! We got a few little flurries in the past couple of weeks, but nothing that stuck to the ground. Until Monday night that is. It snowed a little bit on Monday, and when we woke up on Tuesday, there was a whole inch on the ground and on our truck. Unlucky for us, we also had MLC yesterday, so we needed to drive all the way up to the mission office near Cleveland. The normal hour and half trip was extended to two hours and 45 minutes because of the snow that came down and was continuing to come down as we drove. Since we were driving earlier enough in the morning, some of the roads hadn't been plowed yet so it made it a long drive up there. Luckily there were no car crashes that we saw or were involved in, so that made the day that much better. No sliding off the road, just a perfect drive up and back. It also took a long time to get back to our area so we didn't make it home until after 7 o clock in the evening. Long day with a lot of driving. It was good though because MLC is always a great meeting that is looked forward to by everyone that goes. 

 

As for the rest of the week, I don't really remember much of what happened. The lady that came into the church a few weeks ago to do family history has been back the last couple of weeks and we have been able to continue to help her with that, and we are finding a lot of things that she didn't know about and she loves it! She always finds something new each time and is always so excited about it all. I don't know if I've ever seen anyone so excited about family history, but she is loving it all and is planning on coming again next week. We haven't been able to teach her any of the lessons yet, but she is still coming to the church. Hopefully she starts to come for the meetings soon! Our ward has been trying to find all the people that are still on the records for our ward but have moved out. So this last week we spent some time trying to find all of them and going by their house to see if they still live there. Just trying to help the ward out how we can, and trying to still talk with everyone. As we were out and about, we were trying to see someone who wasn't home, so then we went to try to see someone else who also wasn't home. BUT as we were standing on this person's doorstep, someone driving by saw us and pulled over to the side of the road and got out his car and came over to us. At first I thought he was going to chew us out for being missionaries, but then he started asking about how to get in contact with the missionaries in another ward in the mission because that's where he lived and they used to help him at a hunger center in the community up by the lake. Never would have met him any other way, just goes to show you that missionaries truly are placed in other people's paths, and others are placed in our paths so we can talk with them. It didn't help our area at all, but it was a nice little miracle to talk with that guy. 

 

We had interviews again with President Brown which is always good, had exchanges which are also always good, just had a good week all around. Still trying to find more people that we can teach and work with, but no complaints here in this area! Ohio is the place to be even when it's 20 degrees outside and always windy, but it's well worth it each and every day!

 

Love,

Elder Woodward

Youngstown, Ohio - December 6, 2017

Well hello! It feels like this last week dragged/drug on forever. All because of a simple preparation day change, going from Thursday to Tuesday and then all the way to Wednesday really just messes everything up and all the timing of the week was off. But nevertheless, here I am emailing once again. Already one week into this transfer, only 5 more to go. We have Christmas coming up, MLC next Tuesday, Zone Conference in a couple of weeks, and then it's transfers again and I'll be getting a new companion for sure since Elder Klinglesmith will be going home. But for reals, everything is going well.

The first couple of days of December have been eventful and warm. But it seems to be that every single Wednesday when we email it's freezing cold because my toes are always cold when we are emailing. But starting today it seems like the weather is going to be consistently cold, and it might be snowing on Saturday or Sunday for the first real time. And yes, I already know that you have snow out there. Since all of the time I've been in accidents on my mission, the last couple of days have been a little scary. I have witnessed two accidents since Sunday, but luckily I wasn't in either for the first time. If I had driven a little slower then I very well could have been in both, but luckily I have semi-good timing. Also exchanges on Friday. Always a good time. We saw a member at Little Caesars that ended up buying our pizza, so Little Caesars is the chosen restaurant.

So last Tuesday we had some time open up in the evening for our proselyting time, and we had a referral we were planning on seeing on Wednesday, but we texted her and were able to go over Tuesday instead. One referral then turned into 5 new investigators! When we got there the lady we were going to take a Bible to ended up calling her two 18 year old sons that were down the street at their cousin's house, and they came running back and brought two of their cousins with them, and we were able to teach them all and give them all a Book of Mormon and the all said they would read it. So awesome finding more people that are looking for the truth and we are able to help them find it! We've been doing some service helping a lady in the ward get a furnace down into her basement and then cleaning out her basement as well. It's been fun and it's been a few days work, but it looks so much nicer down in her basement and the furnace should be getting hooked up in the next couple of days. And we were able to help a member put up a bunch of Christmas lights as well yesterday even though it was raining and cold. We've been doing quite a bit of finding to try and find new investigators lately, and trying to find a bunch of less actives that might have moved out of the area and are making slow progress on it. Except the new investigators section. 

Also another little miracle that happened, there are two recent converts in this area, one is 12 and the other is 10. We went to teach them another lesson since they've been baptized, and we were able to find out that they have a sister that is about to turn 9 in January that wants to be baptized. They come to church every week with their grandma, but their dad isn't active and their mom isn't a member but knows that the church is good for their kids. So when we were over there, they told us that they wanted the almost 9 year old, Callie, to be baptized after she turns 9 and they want us to help her prepare for that. So we have started to teach her as well and things are going great. I'll let you know how things end up with her every week.

That's all that I can think of for this week, so I guess this is it! Love you all!

Elder Woodward