Hesperia, California -February 24, 2014

Hey family,

Well 43 weeks down and 38 more to go.  Time is going by quickly.  Everyone always says that, but for the first 6 months of my mission, I haven't believed that.  But in 4 days I will hit my 10 month mark and I am really starting to believe it.  I hope you are all comfy because this might end up being a very long email.  Hope you are all ready.

It is weird that you are talking about spring, because for me, winter hasn't even come up.  I tend to forget it is the end of February.  It is great weather down here.  I hear that next weekend, we might get rain though.  Looking forward to that.

Well I am glad that the Woodward family is representing the ward well.  And by the end of the year, both Woodwards will be home.  Good thing that there are more ready to take our place (well not Woodwards, but just people in the ward)  I didn't know that Alexis got hers.  That is cool.  And Adam too! How cool.  I just got a letter from Grandma today, but I haven't read it yet.  Maybe she mentioned that in her letter. 

Well lets see what has happened in good ol' Hesperia this week.  My companion was sick a lot, so we spent many nights in the apartment.  We knocked on doors.  Met a couple of weirdos.  We had zone conference.  Our car got real dirty on the dusty roads out here.

We visited with Gina, a 17 year old girl.  She is pretty cool.  This was the first time we met her.  She had heard a little bit about the church.  We taught her the Restoration.  When we gave her a book of Mormon, she asked if she could read it even though she wasn't a member.  Her friend came in part way through the lesson and Gina said, "I am gonna find out if this book is true when I pray about it!!"  Then her friend wanted one as well.  She set up the next appointment so her whole family could be there.

We met with Jen this week.  She has 2 little kids and the member that is her friend has 2 little kids.  So we had 4 little kids running around  that made it a little bit crazy.  But we have another appointment with her tomorrow.  She wants to get baptized, but her dad is a very strict catholic and doesn't want to ruin the relationship she has with him.  So we are working on that.

We didn't meet with Kenzii this week, but she came to church with her 2 girls and stayed all three hours.  That was fun.  It was so good to see someone there.  I think she enjoyed it.  We are working hard with her and hopefully will have a baptism with her soon.  That would be ideal.

Love ya all :)

Sister Woodward

Hesperia, California -February 18, 2014

Hey family,

Well since today isn't p-day, our time is cut a bit short, so I don't know how long my email will be this week. I will try to type as fast as dad, but no promises.  I am glad that your week went well.  Sounds like everyone had a good valentines day.  My companion and I ate with a little old single lady in the ward, then spent the night in the apartment.

But the week was good.  We found a new investigator Kenzie, through a member.  We taught her a very basic lesson because she doesn't know much about religion.  But the member had already talked to her about the church and she was planning on coming.  She got sick and didn't make it.  But she is looking for a family church-two little kids.  She is basically golden.  We have a lesson on Friday with her.

We also are working with Jen.  She was left from the other missionaries.  She was struggling with a testimony of living day prophets.  The Davidsons (the coolest couple ever and awesome at missionary work) went to her house on Sunday just to visit.  They text us after the visit and told us that Jen is ready to get baptized.  We were really happy about that.  We have a lesson with her and the Davidsons later today.  Members are great.  All Jen really needed was to have someone other then the missionaries go and visit her. And then she was ready to commit.  She just needed support from someone in the ward. Once she got that and felt accepted in the ward, she was ready! Super cool! Members make a difference!

Well I am out of time.  We have zone conference on Thursday- 730 to 330.  so that will be long and cool.  I am way excited.  

And an apostle is coming in March.  It is Elder Ballard, although no one is supposed to know yet-I have connections. haha And it will be combined with the Redland mission.  SO I will get to see my MTC buddies and Sister Morgan! Way excited

Sister Woodward

Hesperia, California -February 10, 2014

Hey family

Well big news for today, I am more then half way through.  Yep that is right.  I have been out for 284 days and I have 280 days left.  Next thing you know, you will be heading to the airport to pick me up.  Just 6.5 more transfers.  It will go by quickly.  Just gotta make it through the summer...it is going to be SOOO hot here then.  I hope I am back in the valley by the time the heat hits.  

This week was good.  I enjoyed it.  We are still just spending lots of time with the members.  We are trying to get to know them all.  We still haven't been able to meet with our one investigator though.  She is totally flakey and that makes it hard to meet with.  We have had a few appointments set up, and they always seem to fall through.  That is rough.  This up coming week, we are planning on doing a lot of finding activities.  We know most of the ward now, so now it is time to find investigators.  I think there is a lot of work to do up here.  I am excited for it.

 

Sister Beagley has been sick for some time now.  So she is on a diet of sprite, Gatorade, saltine crackers and jello.  The only problem is that she won't stick with her diet, so every night after dinner she gets really sick and can't do anything.  Most of our evenings are spent at home.  Saturday she was sick the whole day.  We were stuck inside the whole day.  Our ward mission leader brought over missionary approved videos for us to watch and I did a 750 piece puzzle.  (all by myself and all in one day.  be proud) We eventually made it through the day. 

I get to go on exchanges this week.  I get to go with my favorite Sister Haupt and I am really excited. 

I got your package-finally.  It was great.  I love the Harry potter stamps.  Those are really fun :) Thanks a bunch.  And the clothes are also wonderful.  I love the blue skirt and I wore it yesterday. I am wearing the brown one today.  They are really comfy :) That is always a great thing.  So thank you thank you.  That was great :) I really enjoyed it all.  And thanks for Darcy's little message on the side of the box as well. 

Well I hope you all have a good day.  I hope Camille has a good birthday. I miss you all.  Take care of Maggie

Love Sister Woodward

Hesperia, California -February 3, 2014

Hi Family,

So to answer all the questions you asked me:  We didn't do anything to celebrate it.  There really is nothing in Hesperia.  We did some missionary work.  I should have gone and got ice cream or something at least.  Maybe on the 8th since that is my hump day.  There are quite a lot of Hispanics here. In fact the 5 closest people to me right now, are all Hispanic and are only speaking Spanish.  We do have a Spanish ward in this area.  I am not sure if it just one or two.  It is very different than rancho.  The houses are not as nice, there is no grass, just dirt, the wind blows all the time,  the people are a little more hillbilly, and more have them have less teeth. I am not sure how many ward are in Hesperia.  Maybe 8 or 9.  Our zone is split in two so I don't know how many missionaries either.  Maybe 30ish in all of Hesperia.  There are 14 in our zone.  I assume the other zone is the same.  The ward is a good size.  We followed Sisters in.  First time I have done that.  The apartment wasn't too bad.  The vaccum was broken so the floor was and still is gross, and the tub is DISGUSTING.  So I am planning on scrubbing that thing A LOT today.  They left a bunch of crap gross food that we didn't want.  Our first day there we took out three bags of garbage.  I am getting used to doing that.  It has happened in most of the apartments I have moved into.  My new companion has been out for 4.5 months.  So less then me.  Every transfer she has moved areas and got a new companion.  So I am her fifth companion and forth area.  Kinda crazy huh? Worse then me.  It is also lots colder in Hesperia.  

Well this week was interesting.  We didn't get left many miles on our car, so we walked a whole lot, which wasn't fun because it was SO cold-well cold to what I am used to, not what you are used to I guess.  I am used to 80s with no wind, not 40s with a strong cold breeze.  We met a lot of the ward.  That is most of what we did this week.  We just met the members.  We called basically the whole ward list and called them all to set up appointments, whether they were active or not.  That was fun.  We made a lot of phone calls. 

Tuesday was an adventure.  So this area is already super different then my last area.  And I was still getting used to it.  So at about 9 at night Sister Haupt and Sister Price came over (the Sister Training Leaders) just to say hello.  After they left, we realized we left the phone in the car.  So we grabbed the keys and headed out there.  I didn't bother locking the door because it was so close.  We have the really dumb screen door that everyone in California has.  You can't see in the house, but whoever is inside can see out perfectly.  So we ran back to the house, and the screen door (metal) wouldn't open.  So luckily I had the keys, except the door never was locked.  So we sat there for a minute twisting and turning and doing everything we could to try to open the door.  Nothing worked.  So next we called our district leader to get permission to call the girl who lived in there before us so that we could see if there was some secret.  We called Sister Wood and she told us that nothing like that had ever happen to her before.  Then we called Sister Haupt back.  She told us to find our manager.  If she couldn't help us then to call her back and they would drive back to our house (15 minutes) to help us open the door.  If we still had no luck, then we could spend the night at their home. 

We went to our managers apartment-she is about 80 and all the lights were off and it was about 945 at this time.  So we didn't want to bother her.  We called Sister Haupt back and they said they were on their way.  We waited for about 10 minutes when two Elders showed up.  One was Elder Eppich and the other was his companion who I forgot the name at this time.  They are the zone leaders for the other Hesperia zone.  We weren't sure why they were there, but we didn't care either.  We were tired and cold.  The two elders then tried everything they could think of to open the door.  They pulled and twisted.  They tried to card the door.  They even tried the windows, which were lock.  Then Sister Haupt showed up.  She tried everything she could think of. Nothing wanted to work.  So then Elder Eppich remembered he had a crowbar (yes a crowbar) in his truck.  They ran to their truck and came back singing, "zone leaders to the rescue" while caring a crow bar (I am sure our new neighbors love us).  And for the next 10 minutes they pried our door open.  Come to find out that the handle had broken.  So it would turn, but the little latch thingy, doesn't turn with it.  So basically they just broke the handle to our door. We got  in and everyone went home.  But don't worry mom, we still have 3 other locks on our doors.  We are safe and sound :)   The Elders showed up because Sister Haupt thought they were our zone leaders and called them.  I guess they live closer to us then our actually zone leaders live so it worked out, and they were the ones with the crow bar. 

In church yesterday, they called on us to go and bare our testimonies first.  That was fun and unexpected.  I was planning on it because he helps gain trust, but definitely not planning on going first.    We will also probably be talking in church sometime soon.  Also someone spread rumors that the ward was getting new sisters along with elders. There are not elders in the ward.  Just us.  So all week we have had to go and explain why there are no elders (every time we make up a different reason because we really have no idea)  I just hate the person that thought it was a good idea to tell everyone that they elders were coming because we hear about that non stop.  Every one is now asking when they are coming and I answer, "well not for at least five weeks.  We have this thing called transfers...."  Oh it is a party.

But our bishop is a hoot.  I think his family has like 25 chickens and is pretty disappointed in my lack of knowledge about chickens.  He thought that having a chicken farm, I would know everything.  He wants to tour so I told him if he ever made it to Logan, we could work that out.  He is a lot of fun though.  He keeps us laughing.  We are going to get along great with him. 

Love ya

Sister Woodward