Chino, California -October 27, 2014

Sister Woodward, Sister Riley and the Chamberlins

Sister Baker, Sister Woodward, and Sister Riley

Hey family,

The two good newses of the week.

First, as you saw from the pictures already, ERIKA AND TALON GOT BAPTIZED!!!! And I got to go back to it since I am only about thirty minutes from Rancho!!  We got there about 2 minutes late and it had started so I didn't get a picture of them in white, but I got one after.  And the miracle of it all, is they all still remembered me! I think Talon gave me about 18 hugs.  I was so happy to see them all again.  

It was also wonderful because even though the Chamberlins are now in the Redhill ward in Rancho due to boundary changes, many of my favorite members from the Hillside ward were there to support! So I got to see lots of them again! It was such a good day! I did send a picture with Sister Baker! It was good to see them all again.

Second, our ward mission leader is a chiropractor and unknown to me they can adjust ankles.  So he looked at my ankle and found out that I didn't sprain or strain my ankle, but instead I moved all the bones out of place.  So he popped them all back into place and I am good to go! I have no more problems.  No brace or crutch! Super happy for that.  

Bad news-Sister Cromwell's insurance is being stinky and won't approve the MRI so it actually hasn't happened yet.  She is getting worse not better so today we are going back to Rancho and she is getting a magnesium treatment.  I am not sure what that is or what it does, but it is happening.  It takes about 2 hours so we will party it up in the doctors office.  It is a good thing I like this companion or that would be 2 hours of torture on my pday.

As for missionary work, we are still trying but it is hard with all of our health problems.  Hopefully soon.  We did handout a ton of invitations for our trunk or treat tomorrow though.  Oh and I spoke in church yesterday.  I got the wonderful topic of member missionary work-big surprise huh?  Well I think it went okay. Definitely not the best talk I have written, and probably not the worst either so I would say okay.  I talk about Marina and the Chamberlins and Monica and all of the good things from them.  It was filled with success stories, so at least I kept them entertained!!

Well I hope you have a good week.  I hope Maggie is still alive.  I can't wait to see you all in three weeks.  My companion can't wait for me to go home either.  She is not one that is comfortable with crying and that is quickly becoming a daily routine for me...haha end of missions are hard.  Just ask Cameron.  He will agree (hopefully)

Love you all

Sister Woodward

Chino, California -October 20, 2014

Hey Mom Dad and the kiddies,

I am glad that all went well with Cameron going home.  I know that their will be two other missionary families when I fly in as well.  One will be my favorite Sister Cook's family.  You can talk to them! The other one, I don't know at all. His name is Elder Iverson.  He is spanish speaking.  But it should be just as fun.  And I hope you find something to do to stand out, because we really do blend in a lot.  Most people don't notice our family when we go someone.  So I really might miss you.

Well that sounds like fun about the soccer games.  I bet the girls loved playing on such a nice field.  I bet it was a good experience.  Now they just need to make it to the olympics in a few years! Tell them to keep practicing super hard!

Sister Cromwell and I get along really well.  I just love this lady! She gets home 9 months after I do and is on the same track at BYU I as I am on.  So then we will can room together which would be a party! We are working on getting healthy.  I am still on crutches, and Sister Cromwell may have hit her head again which is making it lots worse.  She does have an MRI for Wednesday so maybe that will give us some answers as to why her head is still so bad a month after getting the concussion....kinda crazy!

Well with her head, and my foot, it was a slow week for us.  Here is the rundown of the week: 

Monday... I sprained my ankle...:( I was playing basketball and just stepped sorta funky and it rolled all terrible.

Tuesday... Zone meeting, emailing, confined to apartment... Sister Deputy's orders. 

Wednesday... Still inside.... Board games!!! Yay! I totally keep kicking Sister Cromwell’s trash J. 

Thursday... Still inside... More board games!! Yay! Still a winner!! 

Friday... Weekly Planning.... Sister Cromwell may or may not have hit her head again and made her concussion lots lots lots worse..

Saturday... Service... crutched for two miles... AWFUL!!! Our zone leaders didn't quite explain the service we were going to.  We got there and realized it was a GIANT fall festival with over 60,000 people there. So we had to park about a mile away and then crutch all the way over there and then they put us working in the corn maze and making sure little kids didn't get lost from their family! Try doing a corn maze on crutches....Sister Cromwell piggy backed me for part of it.  Then we went more then a mile back to the car.  Sister Cromwell had a Major headache!!! actually thought she was going to die, but it's okay cause she has a super fantastic companion that will play with her hair (IDK why but it helps, bit it does) for three straight hours:) and she wrote her talk for Sunday.  I get to speak this next week! I will let you know how it goes

Sunday... I  was incredibly sore and Sister Cromwell’s head was pounding but she still gave a super fantastic, bold, powerful, marvelous boss of a talk!  All about member missionary work. .We then came home and crashed HARD!!! But since then her headaches have been so much better! Then we finally got to go be missionaries last night! It was great! 

Chino, California -October 14, 2014

Hey family!

I just realized this morning that this would be the last email addressed to both of us.  Kinda crazy and then you pointed it out too.  That is exciting that you will all get to see Cameron this week! I bet you are excited.  It should be good.

I guess I am not actually serving in Chino, but up in Chino Hills.  It is the rich part and the dialect is just a little different then Chino.  Instead of Chinoese they speak Chino Hillese.  It is much more proper...Seriously dad.

Sister Cromwell is so great! I love her.  I don't think I have laughed so much with a companin and we have only been together a week. We are living with members.  It is Sister Barnard and her 13 yr old daughter named Emma who loves soccer.  They are thinking of moving to Utah and are looking at soccer teams...I told them to watch out for La Roca and to not join them ever! Don't worry! I am doing my job down here in Chino Hills!

They are fun though.  Recently (a few weeks ago) Sister Cromwell got her third concussion and is experiencing problems from that.  More recently (yesterday) I was playing basketball and did something dumb to my foot, not ankle and now I have a brace and crutches.  I think it will be find in a few days so I won't waste the money going to the doctor.  I got a blessing today, so the priesthood will heal me up. Just thought I would let you know before our mission nurse calls and tells you.  I am not sure she will, but it is possible.  I think I strained the ligaments in my foot...I dunno.

This last week we walked a whole ton.  There really is no one investigating in our area so we do a lot of finding.  We do live in Chino Hills, so it really is all hills.  I did a lot of hiking I should say.  Then Sister Cromwell's head got worse and I hurt my foot, and so we haven't left the house much.  Luckily Sister Barnard works for a cancer foundation and we get to do lots of service at her house with that.  So we are still trying to do something!!  Hopefully next week I will have more to report on.

Well I hope you have a good week.  I hope Cameron has a good flight home.  Party hard!  Can't wait to see you all in 5 weeks!  Love you all

Sister Woodward

Chino, California -October 6, 2014

Hey family,

Well you will have to go and watch the rest of conference because it was really good.  There were so many good talks and it was fun because 4 speakers spoke in their native languages.  That was cool.  The talks were simple but so good and really just talked about the basics and fundamentals of the church.  

Well I bet you are dying to know what happened with me for my last transfer of my mission.  I am sure that you all guessed that I would be staying in Ontario and either staying with Sister Manumua or getting a new companion.  Well surprise! I got transferred for my last six weeks. I am now serving in a place we will call Chino (because that is what it is called) with a companion who we will call Sister Cromwell (because that is her name).  So the unexpected happened AGAIN.  Kinda crazy.  Who would have thought that I would move my last transfer.  Not me.  I don't know why I have moved so much on my mission.  I can't figure it out.  7 areas and 9 companions in only 13 transfers.  Sister Manumua is staying in Ontario.  She has already been there 6 months and has at least 1.5 more to go.  

Sister Cromwell is from Idaho and has been out for just over 7 months.  She was actually trained in Ontario in the YSA branch.  Her last companion went home in the middle of the transfer, so she has only been partly working in the area while partnered up with Sisters Soleta and Shaw.  There are no elders in the ward, just us.  So missionary work for the last six week has been a little crazy.  It will be fun to work with the members and get it going again.  

This last week consisted of watching conference, saying goodbyes and packing.  Well I guess that was all in the weekend.  During the week, we helped paint part of a house and helped someone else move.  So we cleaned and packed and painted a lot this week.  That is really all that happened.  Nothing else too exciting.  

It was Sister Manumua's birthday on Saturday.  Since we have a million Tongans in our ward the the Tongan ward right next to us, they all celebrated her birthday both days.  There were cakes and singing and taking us out to lunch.  It was crazy.  Her family is in Tonga and they weren't able to send her anything because of costs, and so it was really good for her to be with all the tongans in Ontario.  This way she had someone celebrate with us.

Well I think that is all the updating for today.  Nothing much else going on besides moving.  I was super sad to leave Ontario because so many of the really good friends I have made on my mission were all in Ontario.  And they all stayed and I left. But it should be good.  I am excited for this change.  I don't like change so I think that Heavenly Father is making me get used to it.  Kinda crazy.  

Well I hope you have a good week.  I hope all goes well at home.  Try to keep Gislene out of trouble.  Give Maggie a hug for me.  And I will see you all in 6 weeks!

Love

Sister Woodward