Sister Shannon Elise Woodward: November 2014

Hey Mom, Dad, and the kids (whose names I may or may not have forgotten after being gone for so long)

Well I have now stared at this empty email for quite a few minutes now. I am just not sure what to write for my last email to you as a missionary. That is kind of weird to think about. For that last eighteen months I have emailed you every week and that will be a change to not do that anymore. But I will be with you in person so it will be all the better.

I guess I could start with one big detail I left out from my email last week. I am not the driver!! Don't you worry. It is my companion that has ruined all the mission cars, not me. :) So you don't need to worry for my driving when I get back home. I have been a good safe driver the whole time I have been out.

Not a lot of significant events happened this week for us. It was stake conference. That was fun. So I will have one week off and then another stake conference. Great huh? We knocked doors. We had partial exchanges. We didn't go on normal ones all transfer because of all the crazy stuff that has happened this transfer with our companionship. So on Saturday we just exchanged for a couple of hours. Nothing too great about it.

I did have my departing interview with President. That was just weird because it was so different from any other interview I have ever had with him. Instead of missionary work and companions we talked about stuff after the mission. Just didn't feel normal haha.

I am including part of my email to Presidents about my mission: It has been a good mission. I have quite enjoyed all of it. There were definitely some hard times, but I have learned and grown a lot during it. I have made some life long friends and met many people that have changed my life forever. I am very grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve God these last 18 months of my life and there is nothing else I would have wanted to do with them. They have been wonderful and I bet lots of good things will continue to come from these last 18 months for the rest of my life.

I just want to say that I am so grateful to both mom and dad for encouraging me my whole life to go on a mission. If it weren't for your examples, I don't know if I would have chosen to serve and because of that my life has been forever changed. I love this gospel. I love that I have been able to represent Jesus Christ for 18 months and share the wonderful news of the restored gospel with every one. I love our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. I am often in wonder at how much They both do for each one of us every day of our lives. They really do know each of us personally and want what is best for us. As Sister Hobbs said in stake conference, "God just wants us home" That is His purpose and His plan. He just wants all of us to return back to Him again. I am so grateful that I have been able to help people start on the path back to Him again. This has been a wonderful adventure that I am beyond grateful for.

Well I think that is all for now. I am going to finish the rest of my p-day and I will see you all very soon. Have a wonderful week and start feeling better mom! And don't forget to bring Maggie to the airport!!

Love you all,

Sister Woodward

Hindu Temple

Carving pumpkins

Hey family,

Yeah only two more weeks to hear that title. Kinda crazy. I bet Cameron is still not used to going by Cameron...well maybe by now, it has been two weeks. And it sounds like they all had fun at Halloween. I super hope mom is doing better and is starting to heal. That really stinks. But the riding lessons sound fun. I hope she was enjoying them until she got bucked off.

Well this is my second to last email for the week. I hope you enjoy it because it has been quite the week. I hope you are ready for the craziness that has happened this week.

Monday: I lost my planner and still haven't found it. I got a new one but it is boring and empty. We also carved pumpkins as a zone. Sister Cromwell and I both had super good looking pumpkins. Pictures to follow.

We also went to the doctor in Rancho and Sister Cromwell got a magnesium boost. It was supposed to clear her headaches for about 8 hours and only worked for about 30 minutes...We fear there might actually be a problem in her head. Not good.

Tuesday: Our ward had our trunk-or-treat in the evening. It was lots of fun. We combined with another ward in Chino for it. Everyone decorated the trunks and there was a costume contest, chili contest, pumpkin contest and car decorating contest. We as missionaries and supposedly impartial got to judge the costumes and the cars. The Elders in the other ward did the other two. It was fun. We even decorated our car! It looked good. Pictures to hopefully follow.

Wednesday: I got my departing devotional invitations and in the evening when Sister Cromwell's head was too bad to work, I started addressing those. Nothing much else happened that day.

Thursday: Sister Cromwell was super bad. We spent most of the day inside. Headaches and weird dilated pupils. Lots of board games and sleep. Ha We were also able to deliver thank you cards to our members since we had time to write them all.

Friday - Well this is where the fun begins! Our car started having some serious issues with the steering and the traction control. It wouldn't go up any hills and our area has some serious hills. So we had to get our car towed and that was fun. How are you supposed to cover a canyon without a car? you don't! Sister Cromwell is banned from bikes and since my ankles are still healing, I am banned from walking long distances. So we were once again inside. But we made the most of it by playing several games of skip-bo, making delicious halloween treats, and defrosting a fridge that went wacko with a blow dryer. During the making of halloween treats, I possible burnt my finger on some boiling caramel when mixing it with popcorn. It will leave a nice scar I am thinking. haha the joys of being a missionary.

Saturday - Drove to Rancho to get the only spare car at the mission office. Yay! (don't worry that won't last long.) We had a super good lesson with one our recent converts all about the temple and taking out his endowments! It will be super good day when he actually does so!

Sunday - Actually kinda a normal day. We had a good day at church and got one of our less-actives to come! YAY! We also out of neglect because everything else happen may have weened out of Sister Barnard that we had room inspections that day so we had to rush home and speed clean our bedroom so that we didn't get in trouble by the apartment inspectors!

Then there is today: So this morning we were going to the Hindu Temple for a tour-ironic that mormon missionaries are going to the Hindu Temple. Well we were driving down the freeway and all of a sudden there was a weed whacker in the middle of our lane (Who puts a weed whacker in the middle of a freeway?!!? Seriously!!) with a semi on the left and a cement wall on the right and a semi right behind us. So all we could do was hit the stupid thing. Well we drove about 2 more minutes to the temple and realized that there was a giant hole in the transmission fluid thingy. Great huh? So there goes another car that got towed. Once again in a Canyon ward (way worse then Smithfield Canyon) and no car, with another doctors appointment in Rancho in less then an hour! Thank goodness for good members!!

So that was our week. Sister Cromwell has an MRI tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. Don't think we will be making our curfew that night. We will let you know how it goes. It could be a pretty crazy week for us again.

Love you all and I hope you have a good week. I hope Maggie is well and I will see you in two weeks

Love Sister Woodward