Exchanges

Elder Wood

This week we had exchanges on  with the zone leaders and i stayed up here in St. Paul. 
Elder Sorenson is who i was with and he is total stud of a missionary. We Tracted the whole time pretty much because we didnt have any appointments but we found 3 new potential Investigators in one night! It was great. We already taught one of them again about the restoration and things are going great with her:) 
Things are starting to pick up here in the St. Paul area! We have a lot of less actives in the area so that has been a big focus lately to meet with all of them and get things goin so that is what we have been doin a lot lately. 
This week the primary president asked if i would teach in sharing time about the Holy Ghost so this week I prepared for that and then Friday night our 2nd councelor in the branch presidency called and asked us if we would speak in sacrament meeting... So last second we had to throw stuff together and get talks ready for Sunday. I spoke on the role of members in missionary work and my companion spoke on the Plan of Salvation. Kinda random but it was good. Our branch takes about 15 min to get started and get through the sacrament. I wasnt even thinking about that! I spoke first and talked for like 15 min then i got done and we still had like 35 min! hahaha i sat down and my companion look at me and just said. " you suck so bad. " I looked at the clock and I almost lost it up on the stand. hahahaha:) by time he got done we had like 20 minutes till it ended so our branch president just got up and talked a little bit. It was good sacrament though. And the talk in sharing time went great! We had a big primaryon Sunday because of visitors (10 kids). 
That was my week in a nut shell... 
Have a great week,
Elder Wood

Studying hard

Answered Prayers

Elder Wood in his workout....tights?

Its been a good week. Since last week wasn't the most successful week we worked a lot harder this week to find investigators. We did a ton of service this week as well. We do service for the local food bank and they got a huge shipment in of like 30 pallets of food so we unloaded food FOR EVER on Tuesday. We got a big huge box of little honey packets so thats good! Instead of peanut butter and jelly everyday I can go with the change up:) After doing service for most of the day on Tuesday we went out to a town called Elk Point where we thought we would go tracting for about 30 min before our dinner appointment. When i woke up that day i just had this way good feeling that we were gona find somebody so i was way excited! We knocked a street and didnt have any luck and we had to go soon so i was determined that we were gonna find somebody. We walked across the street to a lady watering her garden so i introduced ourselves and told her about who we are and she actually seemed interested so we talked a little bit more and then she talked about how shes been curious about religion recently and has been listening to religion radio stations and such trying to find more information on questions she had.  She talked about the bible so i introduced her to the Book of Mormon and talked a little bit about it and how it compares to the bible and how it contains the full gospel of Christ and the answers to all her questions. She said I've always wondered what the he** I'm doing here!!" I got so happy. Once again I said this book has those answers. Then she said "I'm gonna have to get a copy of one of those!" I gave her my Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet and asked if we could come back tomorrow and talk a little bit more about it. She said we could! I walked away from that house soo happy knowing that my prayers were answered and that we could finally teach somebody! We got to the next house and i remembered that the next day i had exchanges and i was going up to Cherry Grove. I was sooo mad!! Words can explain how mad i was. Its okay though..  when i got back from exchanges my companion said she had a no show and then was busy so she said to pray for her when to come back...? I dont even care cuz now i get to teach her the first lesson and baptize her:) oh and my companion told me this week that i have to much greenie fire... not gonna argue that one but St. Paul definitely humbles that fire. haha sorry to go off on one experience but that was probably the highlight of the week... Exchanges were sweet Cherry Grove is a way cool place. Its a huge Mormon community in the middle of no where right by Cold Lake. Our apartment there is in a basement of an old farm house with an awesome couple that lives there. It was pretty much just like visiting grandma and grandpas house. That night there we played floor hockey with a nonmember family that the missionaries are teaching up there. It got way intense! We were still in our missionary clothes and by time we were done we were soaked in sweat! And also the Elder i was with broke his foot while playing so i spent that whole night there in the hospital waiting with him.. We were there til about 1 in the morning but we got to sleep in the next day so it was all good. And they drive a 2014 Chevy truck so i got to drive that around for two days. It was sweet. And one of the Elders in my zone hooked me up with a Enya CD that pretty much made my life. We listen to it over and over in the car. My companion hates me. That was pretty much my week...
Have a great week everyone,
Elder Wood

Hail in St. Paul

A Day In The Life.....

7-11 Free Slurpee Day

Apparently Elder Wood is not doing his dishes :/

Todays been a slooow week. Good week though. We did'nt have one lesson this week. Every single person was a no show. haha its so frustrating! Yesterday we tracted for about 7 hrs and didnt get one potential investigator. We do lots of service around here for the community and were the go to people for our little branch whenever people need help with something so service keeps us pretty busy a lot.

My day kinda goes like this. Wake up workout. Go to the local track or park and do pull ups on the jungle gym toy then we study for three hours. Every missionary that starts out is on a 12 week program that allows you and your companion to have an extra hour of study. Then we do service or eat lunch and then tract till dinner. After dinner we tract and then go to bed. Then repeat every day:) Days go forever but the weeks go by fast! So yea i dont have any stories to tell about investigators cuz our 2 investigators are on trips:) were gona keep working hard though to get some more! These last couple days ive been starving cuz i eat all my food within just a couple days! haha i had to learn the hard way this week. And they forgot to pass the clip board around this week in relief society so we pretty much ate chips and apples for dinner all week. Church was awesome this week. The patriarch came and spoke with his wife and they both gave really good talks. He spoke on marriage and then to me and Elder Blatter about finding the right girl to marry. Yes he talked to us because were the only two in sacrament that are close to marrying age. haha we actually had a lot of people this week in sacrament because two families were visiting. Everybody goes crazy at church when something like that happens here. It reminds me of the movie cars. haha they doubled all the young mens and young womens and primary classes just from there families. 7/11 was this week so you already know i made my companion drive to 7/11 to get us free slurpees! Oh i guess something exciting happened today! I found a pull up bar at the local store so now i dont have to go to the jungle gym toy thing. haha

Thank you everybody for the great support back at home im grateful for such awesome friends and family, im grateful for this gospel and the opportunity to serve the lord for two years and ive already seen it change me, for the good. Im grateful for Jabari Parker going to the Bucks, im grateful for Lebron going back to the Cavs. There is so much to be grateful for.   -Elder Wood

 

 

Elder Wood's apartment

Happy to see that he made his bed

 

OH CANADA!!

Last Day in the MTC

St. Paul

The Branch President and his family prepared a "Green" (greenie) meal in honor of their new Elder, Elder Wood.

Sorry to break the news but none of my emails are going to compare to the one that I sent from the MTC. I really don't like computers but since im out in a little place called St. Paul, about 3 hrs away from Edmonton I don't get mail a lot. We get mail like twice a transfer when our zone leaders bring it up to us. So I'm gona have to stick to email if I want to keep in contact more. Everybody still write me though because I like letters better and ill take my time writing them:)
 Just a little bit about my area. We have just about 40 members in our branch and a lot of them are not active and our area covers an area about the size of Maryland. My companion is a way cool kid. Hes from Idaho Falls, his name is Elder Blatter. We get along way good and he thinks im way immature. hahah We have to set weekly goals and I made one of his to laugh more. We spend a lot of our time tracting but I don't know what were supposed to do when we run out of houses to knock? Like I said our area is spread out a lot so we spend a lot of our time driving to all these little towns in the middle of no where. These little towns we go to are good church going people that have a little church chapel in their town that they've been goin to so they are not very open. One lady was the wife of a priest and she freaked out at us telling us that she hopes we find the light and get out of the darkness that we have been in and all this other stuff that I didn't understand about our religion. My companion just stayed calm and didn't really fight and just tried to keep it cool but I wanted to just punch her right in the face and say see you at the judgment bar.
My companion is a good guy. My first lesson we ever taught didn't go quiet how I wanted it to... Everything went good teaching wise but we had our lesson outside and her husband that probably didn't want us there was trimming his yard all around us and didn't turn it off and then she had a daughter that was playing on a huge blow up toy that she was worried about the whole time. With that there is sooo much mosquitos outside! Ill keep you updated on that, but she left on a trip for a week so we wont be able to see her for a bit. You have to really work hard out here to get investigators. That has been the only lesson weve had since ive been here but we got two lesson tomorrow set up with people that we found tracting since ive been here that im pretty excited about. They live in a little town call Elk Point that is about 30-40 min from St. Paul. Its beautiful up here and its been really hot! I wasn't expecting that kind of weather coming up to Canada. The members are awesome up here and they feed us every night. They love the missionaries and whenever they get a new elder it is a big deal. The picture with all the green stuff is out our branch presidents house President Hatch. Our whole meal was green because im a brand new missionary. (a greenie) Canada is not way different from the U.S. but it kinda is its weird. The money is cooler here. The candy is better here. The people sound funny and say stuff weird. Its awesome though! Every single person here drives a brand new truck. Im not complaning though we drive a 2014 Subaru. Well life is good here in St. Paul! I love being a missionary! Im way happy and content:) again sorry if it doesn't make sense or stuff is spelled wrong I fly through it and don't check it.
Love you all,
Elder Wood

This is what Elder Wood and Elder Evans did during break time in the MTC.....drew up new plays

 

Chocolate milk in the MTC. Every time they would restock the vending machine with it, Stetson would go buy them all. :/

New Zone

MTC teacher

First Letter From The MTC - He Really Is A Missionary!

Elder Clinger and Elder Wood

 

The District

I cant believe that its already been a week! time really does fly here in the MTC. The first couple days here are kind of a blur now but I know they were great! The day after we got here our branch president assigned me and my companion Elder Clinger as new zone leaders. I felt way overwhelmed but it really isnt that bad. OH my companion is a great guy! hes from Southern California and way way smart about the gospel. We work great together and I really did luck out to get such a good companion. I'll tell more about him later. The food here is amazing and i can just tell that ive already gained tons of weight. haha When I got here my whole district was afraid of me and didnt dare to talk to me except for one kid named Elder Gardner from Pocatelo Idaho. He follows me every where I go because he found out I was playing college football. He reminds me from Kevin on the office. He looks just like him and believe it or not his name is Kevin! Hes way funny and we've gotten pretty tight because every gym time he comes and watches me work out in the weight room because my companion is a twig (as you can tell) and refuses to go in the weight room. Every single person in my zone looks and reminds me of somebody from the office I'm sure you can tell who reminds me of Dwight (Elder Wolvers from Alberta Canada) and then Toby(Elder Ebright). My zone is pretty funny and we all get along pretty good. Im glad I dont have to share a room with any of them but my companion though. Hunter Evans my best friends room is right down the hall so we talk every night which is pretty cool.
ummm theres not alot to talk about really, we have like 5 hours of personal study every morning before our class the second part of the day and then me and my companion have a bunch of leadership meeting after class so days here are way long but it goes by waaay fast! its weird. I feel like all I do is eat food. My Coaches would be so proud. On a spiritual note.. Me and my companion have to teach a P.I. and TRC investigator every day and its been so sweet! our P.I. investigator committed to babptism our first meeting with her. At first I felt so uncomfortable with that stuff but its amazing how fast you change. One thing ive learned is that you have to love the people you teach. Thats why its so important to treat your investigators here as if they are real. The second thing is that you dont have to know everything but as you teach simple truths and things that you know to be true the spirit will teach them everything they need. We had a devotional sunday night and the lady that wrote the song daughters of zion spoke and i dont think ive ever felt the spirit more strong then at that meeting. I've learned to love singing the hymns! MTC really does change you!! Before every meeting we start out with a hymn and they really do bring the spirit into the room. Having the spirit with you as you teach and learn is so important and that is why i think ive learned to love them. I even went and bought me my own little hymn book. Well anyways at that devotional we all stood and the Elders stood and sang Army of Helaman and the sisters sang Daughters in Zion. And holy crap you cant really even put it to words really. It was so powerful!! Last week and this week the new Mission presidents from around the world have been here being taught from all the apostles so half the place has been locked down but once in a while you'll see them and its pretty sick! The other day me and my companion walked past Elder Bednar and talked to him a little bit. Every Tuesday there is a devotional and we knew there was gona be an apostle speaking because of this training thing that was goin on. We showed up and there was six apostles there! Elder Christopherson spoke on charity and how every soul is great in the sight of god. Ive had some pretty cool experiences here. The second day while playing basketball my companion twisted his ankle and has been on crutches for a week! are you kidding!? He loves it because i have to carry his bags everywhere and get all his food... We get to take elevators everywhere though so i guess thats good.. Well I kinda flew through this email but i summed up the coolest things i think. I didn't even write this much in my three years of high school so my eyes and brain hurts really bad right now. This is my only p-day in the MTC so the next time you here from me i will be in Canada. I leave July 1st at like 2:30 in the morning.. kinda sucks. sorry if things arent spelled right or dont make sense i didnt proof read it...
Love you all. Church is true.
-Elder Wood

Elder Wood and his best friend Elder Evans

Elder Wood and Tuna....

Elder Wood (right tackle) and Elder Evans (QB1) Stetson has protected him since they were 9 :)

 

Elder Clinger on crutches

 

 

Game Day!! - MTC Bound

We took Stetson to the MTC on Wednesday to begin his new adventure as a full time missionary. Instead of the usual pictures in front of the temple, Stetson wanted pictures in front of Cabelas. Seemed fitting, so Cabelas was our first stop. We took pictures and bought some fudge for him to snack on that night and then he asked to get J-Dawgs before heading to the MTC.
We are so proud of Elder Wood and we know he will do amazing things in Edmonton Canada.
Enjoy the pictures from our great/dreadful day!

Elder Stetson Hunter Wood

Elder Wood and his sister Clara

Elder Wood

Elder Wood and Proud Parents

Elder Wood and Sister Channing

Hunting and Fishing Buddies for life!!

 

Stetson's favorite

 

Quick pic at South Field in honor of Courtnee (his sister)

 

Goodbye to Dad

Goodbye to Mom

One last hug for Channing

 

My babies

And just like that......he was gone. See you in two Elder Wood