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

Ontario, California -September 29, 2014

Sister Woodward, Brother Broadbent, Manuel, Sister Manumua

Sister Woodward, Bailey, Sister Manumua

Sister Crowley and Sister Woodward

Sisters at the Redlands Temple

Sister Woodward and Sister Manumua

Hey mom, dad, and the monsters! 

Sounds like soccer is keeping everyone pretty busy at home.  How do you have time for anything else? Does Dad even make it up to the farm?  

Jill is really enjoying having Amber home.  She emails me every few weeks and she loves it.  I am sure Amber likes being back with Jill again.  Such a nice sister Jill is.  She didn't get married while Amber was gone and they can actually hang out together without dumb boys getting in the way....(maybe don't show that part to Kelsey)

Well as you have seen in the pictures, Manuel really did get baptized! We were so happy.  It was crazy though.  Our church building is super old and the font is really little.  As you can see, Manuel isn't the smallest of guys.  The guy conducting was convinced that the font was going to overflow because the ward before us filled it too high (it would have been fine).  So when Manuel and Brother Broadbent got in the font, Brother Broadbent pulled the plug so it could start draining.  The only problem is that this font drains like there is no tomorrow.  So Manuel went down and his arm stuck up.  Then he went down again and I guess his head didn't go all the way under.  

By this point, the font was half empty.  Brother Broadbent then tried to put the plug back in to stop the water.  He couldn't get it to stay.  After a few minutes of trying, and even more water draining, he gave up and tried once again to baptize Manuel completely.  He successfully got Manuel under on the third time. Manuel later told us that he was laying all the way on the floor of the font.  Super crazy!  Bet you haven't experienced a baptism like that before.  I don't know how they even had enough water.  I think that was a miracle.  

This week we get to have a special zone conference and watch the new movie Meet the Mormons.  It should be fun.  We are all excited!  All the missionaries in the Valley watch it on Wednesday and all the missionaries in the High desert watch it on Thursday.  So we get to see it before it is out in theaters.  I will let you know how it is.

We are also excited for conference this weekend.  I think Monica is most excited because to her it is a sunday off church! Stinkin Monica.  She is still trying to get back in, but her kids are doing great.  If they can't go to mutual they are so sad.  They hide from Monica at church so they can stay all three hours when she wants to leave after Sacrament meeting.  What teenage kids are like that? Only the best ones!  One day you will get to meet them all.

On Friday Sister Hobbs came out with Sister Manumua and me.  We went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then went to find lost less actives.  We knocked on a few doors and found a pretty solid potential. His name is Brandon. He is probably in his mid 20s.  He might end up going to the YSA branch (like 10 people).  We have an appointment with him this Friday.  We will let you know how it goes.

Well as you may or may not know, this is the last week of the transfers, so by next Monday I will have transfer news for you! I will let you know what happens.  We are thinking there will be a change, but not sure what it will be yet.  

Love you all

Sister Woodward

Ontario, California -September 24, 2014

Hey family,

I wish the weather was going to start dropping, but it isn't going to anytime soon.  They say not til November will it start cooling down.  It is pretty close to 100 degrees today.  So hot!  

There is a lady in my ward whose name is Naomi Reale.  Her maiden name is Low.  I guess she is a big soccer player.  In fact she is being inducted (is that the right word) into the hall of fame next year-so like a big soccer player.  I thought Darcy and Emmie would like that fact.  

Speaking of Naomi, we have actually been teaching Naomi's daughter.  Her daughter, Bailey, just turned eight and was baptized this last Saturday.  We went and got pictures but I forgot the cord to my camera so I can't send it to you.  But that was fun! Another person we taught got baptized, even though she wasn't counted as a convert.

Speaking about baptisms! Guess who is getting baptized this Saturday?   MANUEL!! He had his interview with our district leader yesterday and is doing really well and he passed! So everything is falling into place for that! We are super excited and so is Manuel.  And luckily this time, we don't have to work with Elders to plan it because it is all ours!  Happy for that.  In fact, I think everything is already planned and it has been less than 24 hours! No procrastination here! Be proud!  So in just a few days I will get some more pictures off to you!

Speaking of not procrastinating, we saw Sister Shaw this week with her companion.  They came over to just see how Sister Manumua and I are doing. I was good to see Sister Shaw.  She is so great.  I love her.  I wish we could be companions.  She is just always happy no matter what is going on in her life.  We need to hook her and Cameron up when they both get home! It will be perfect :) haha 

Speaking of marriage, we got to go to the temple this morning! Not for a wedding though.  That was so wonderful.  Our great Relief Society president took us and the sisters in the YSA branch.  We had a good sessions, then went to Mimi's Cafe for lunch.  I just love Sister Broadbent.  She is a great lady, but she told us she is getting released on Sunday.  I am super sad. I also love Sister Crowley! She is one of the sisters in the YSA branch and has helped me SO much these past 10 weeks.  She is going to BYU-Idaho and I am excited for that.  I am trying to talk Sister Shaw into going up there.  I think she is going to go to Snow though. haha

Well I hope all is well at home.  I hope you have a good week.  I will talk to you in a few days.  Oh and dad! I never told you, but the hotel you were at when you were down here, Doubletree, is less then .3 miles from where I live.  It is just across the street and down a little bit.  Probably less then 10 minutes walking.  Close to 5 I'd say.  Kinda crazy how close you were all day.  

Love you

Sister Woodward

Ontario, California -September 15, 2014

Monica, Tatiana, Sister Woodward, Victoria, Sister Manumua, and Isaiah

Volunteering at Mount Baldy

Sister Woodward and Sister Respecia

Sister Woodward and the Ebmeyers

Sister Woodward and Grandpa Newman

Sister Woodward and Maddie

Apple Valley, California

Hey family!

Well it is wonderful to hear that everyone is having such pleasant weather, except for me.  Today at 830 in the morning, we were already to 90 degrees.  This whole week we have been close to 107.  At 9:00 at night, it is still 90 degrees.  I think someone said it cooled to a whole 75 degrees by 4 in the morning....Ridiculous! I am so tired of the weather!  The cool season can't come soon enough.  And so yep we are always running the air conditioner because if we don't it gets to 100 degrees in our house.  But we have it at 80 while we are gone.  Kinda crazy!

Well as you have seen, the Costa's got baptized!! So great! It was a wonderful day, but quite a week leading up to it, ending with me not liking the elders in our ward very much.

So here we go again: So last Sunday the Costa's all passed their interviews and we started planning their baptism.  We set 11 on Saturday at our building aside from that.  We then got a text from our elders on Wednesday saying that they were hoping to have a baptism at the same time.  We figured, well a combined one, that is fine.  Come to find out, they thought ours was at 12 and wanted to do theirs an hour before.  Well in so many ways that would have screwed us over.  First, we already had everyone invited to the 11 oclock one.  Second, there is no way the water would stay warm for the hour in between and there wasn't enough time to empty and refill the font either.  So I don't know what they were expecting us to do.  Whatever

Later I was talking to our ward mission leader planning the baptism and he said that Keith (the elders investigator) hadn't even had an interview yet.  He probably wasn't go to get baptized.  So we started planning the whole thing.  The elders were convinced he was getting baptized.  So I asked the elders to find someone to give one prayer. ONE PRAYER!!! That way Keith knew someone involved in the program.  You would think they could find one person to give a prayer! ONE!  So on Friday, I text them to see if Keith was for sure getting baptized and if he was, if they had found a prayer yet.  They told us he was getting baptized and then for us to find someone to prayer.  

Oh I was annoyed at them.  I had done EVERYTHING else so far, while they did nothing and I gave them one small job to do.  So I text back and said No.  We have found everything else down to the refreshments, you can find a prayer.  So they said  Oh we tried, but nonmembers can't give prayers at baptismal services!  Well duh they can't elders!  Just like with sacrament.  A sacred ordinance is being preformed.  Plus I knew at least 40 people coming to the service, so how hard did they really try? Not very hard.  In the end, one of the elders just gave the prayer because they couldn't find anyone else.  Okay. Done with that.

So Saturday morning, we showed up to the church.  Brother Santamaria was there filling the font.  We told Monica and her kids to get there at 10:30 so typical mormons, they showed up at 11:05.  So we started a few minutes late but it all went really well.  The spirit was there and it was a good service.  Tatiana had to go under three times because her legs kept popping up.  

The confirmations were great too.  We had three different guys from the ward confirm.  It was the first time confirming for one of the guys.  The spirit was super strong.  Monica was crying through it all.  We were crying through it all.  It was good.  Then Sister Manumua and I both were speaking yesterday.  Thanks to the confirmations, our talks didn't have to be too long.  They went well.  Mine was on strengthening the home. 

Manuel came to church yesterday.  He is still doing well.  One day soon he is going to be baptized as well.  We are still working with him and encouraging him.  He is a good guy.

Well I think that is the highlight of the week.  We did go to a full on tongan party last night.  One of the girls in the tongan ward just got home from a mission in Texas.  They invited us. Holy cow! Talk about a TON of food.  And not my favorite type of food.  Lots of fish, mostly raw, and octopus...that was interesting!

Well have a great week! Love you all

Sister Woodward