There and Back Again - A Missionary's Tale

The GIANT Cinnamon Roll

(Feb 2, 2009 Post, Up to McCall: We than went to a place called the Pancake house. Famous for there large portions. I ordered a breakfast sandwich and was like, oh look, a "giant" cinamon roll is only like $2. I'll get that too. We wait a while for our food and the waitress brings out the most massive cinimmon roll I or any othe the other elders had ever seen. They all busted out there cameras and took pics. ITS WAS HUGE!! As Jim Gaffigan would say, 8 pounds of cake. But I did finish it and paid the price. haha.)

1st off, this computer wont let me put pics on, so sorry for two weeks without pictures. I feel bad too.

This week has actually been MAD crazy! Wednesday we went out and did a bunch of service painting someone's house. (Don't let me fool you into thinking I'm some kinda Bob Ross, I just threw down the primer coat. haha). We also met with a former who wanted us to teach her again. hey oh! Way cool.

Thursday (let the crazyness begin) after district meeting, we drove up to Elgin to visit people there and the ward wanted us to see Annie (the musical about the little orphan girl) in the Elgin opera house. So we drove up and NO ONE! I repeat, NO ONE we tried to visit was home. This makes planning very useless. Than we found out that they are not doing a showing of Annie that night so I was just like, "we should just drive up to Enterprise"...so we did! That really took up the rest of the night because its a long drive. We stayed at the bishops house and had a great time.

Friday, we tried to visit people in Enterprise. Deja vu, NO ONE was home. UGH!!!! That was frustrating. But! the end of the night made it worth it. We drove all the way back to La Grande and had dinner and watched Testaments with our investigator. After the movie,we talked for a while and committed her to baptism. She is being baptized on June 20. (Ya, its a way's out, but the person baptizing her is gonna be gone until that day). But its all awesome!

Sat, we went to play basketball with a bunch of investigators, but learned quickly that they canceled. We got a call from someone in Elgin telling us to go to the afternoon Annie show and have lunch with the cast, and since we do what we're told, we watched Annie and had lunch with the cast. haha. It was pretty awesome. We met some people that want us to come by and that we've needed to contact for a while. So good did come from it. haha.

Sun we went to church and did the regular Sunday thing. After that, we got a referral to go see this guy Derrin.We did and he is AWESOME! totally wants to hear everything we have to say and knows its true. Really cool. there was also a fireside that night from the Ogden (?) family. Guy broke his neck TWICE and he's STILL around. It was all about pushing through hard times and relying on Christ. It was REALLY cool.

Monday was p-day pt 1. (you'll see why). We were told to check email and shop. Well, no libraries are open on memorial day, so obviously one of those two things didn't happen. That night, we drove down to Ontario again (I got to stay with Forsyth again. Woo hoo!. It was way fun) because the next day, we had interviews and the spring fling. It was a TON of fun.

Everyone in the Middleton zone conference got together and just played sports and stuff. I even played a game of basketball (learned I can grab the rim and almost dunk) and played Crockett! It was super fun. That we drove all the was back to La Grande and it was like 8:30, so too late to email.

So here I am Wednesday morning emailing. haha. Its been pretty crazy but a TON of fun. Well, hope your memorial weekend was safe and fun.

Love ya all!

-Elder Woods

A New Car and a New Diet

Hello everyone!

So its been one year since this blog was started. Wow, that's worth celebrating. Go buy yourselves some ice cream on me. Just throw out my name. If they give it to you for free, awesome, if not...I can't help ya. haha.

Anywho, pretty crazy week. I don't have my planner on me (we just got done playing raquet ball) so I don't remember what happened Wednesday. Probably something amazing though. haha.

Thursday we had district meeting in Baker. So we packed up and drove way down to Baker (an hour and a 1/2). We had district meeting, (which was cool because Thursday was actually my one year mark and Elder Kaler is in my district and he was in the MTC with me. So 365 days before that we met. haha, pretty cool). After district meeting and a comp seminar, we than drove all the way to Payette (sound familier?)
haha. We stayed down there because the next morning we had zone conference in Middleton.

So we reached Payette (another 2-2 1/2 hours) and stayed with Elder Forsyth and his comp. It was pretty fun. The next morning we drove all the way to Middleton and had zone conference. It was AWESOME! We talked alot about health and stuff, and
Sister Yardley challenged us to eat healthier (plus elder Tryon said I look fat. which is true. haha). So today I bought a ton of healthy stuff. I even surprised myself. After that, we drove back in our new Chevy Malibu...well...new to us. It was the zone leaders car but it's ours now. Yeah! haha. Its fun. But it was a WAY long drive.

Sat was pretty good, nothing amazing.

Sunday we DID talk in church and had a bunch of investigators there. That was awesome.

Yesterday we tried to conserve miles by walking all day. This turned out to be a terrible idea. We pick the one warm day with no breeze to walk. But it was good. Its helping with the health thing.

Anyways, thats this week!

Sorry there isn't a ton of details, like a I said, I forgot my planner. Love ya all and stay safe...but not too safe to not have fun! haha. jk.

Elder Woods

(Sorry this is posted late but the girls and I were celebrating Emily's graduation by going on a little cruise. Since Brad didn't send pictures I'll post some)

Little Towns and Funny Signs

The Bakers

On the way to Enterprise

Driving to La Grande

Jeremy Jensen

Happy late Mothers Day again to everyone out there...that is a mother.

This week has been pretty hectic. I don't use that word lightly either. haha. So here's the run-down.

Wednesday was transfers and so we woke up wicked early and got to the transfer spot...and the AP's were WAY late. But there's no surprise there. haha. My ride however, was a brother from La Grande who had volunteered to take the missionaries up there. I don't remember his name or anything, but if your reading this, thanks again. Anywho, after departing from my son we made the LONG drive to La Grande. It is very different from any place I've served before. Very green, woodsy. A place one would imagine ents or hippies living. But I met Elder Anderson...he's WAY tall. I think I'm gonna have to carry a chair around to stand on when we take pictures so I don't look like Gary Coleman standing next to Sean Bradley. haha. Anyways, we met some cool people and got unpacked and stuff.

Thursday we went to Elgin (a little town we cover between Enterprise and La Grande). So we were up there contacting people and what not and we had planned to do service. So we go to the Opera house to help paint the set for Annie. I'm no Bob Ross, but it was pretty fun. The crazy part - (buckle your seat belt)..... So this lady is working on a piano in the pit and started talking to us. You know, the typical missionary questions. Well she asks me where I'm from and I respond Mesa AZ (go Mesa!), and she's like, "oh, my brother-in-law is from there. I know Mesa is huge and you probably don't know them but do you know any Forts? Like Milton and Elaine?" I'm like, "oh SNAP! That's my Aunt and Uncle!" So than she calls her brother-in-law Jason (my cousin) and I totally got to talk to him. I tried to convince him to come down to Elgin and "accidentally" meet up. haha. It was a really cool experience.

Well we stayed the night in Elgin and the next day heard of a service project going on so we're like, "ya we can do service". It was helping a family move. No big deal. To make a long story short, 5 hours later we left Elgin to drive back to La Grande. and your right, it shouldn't have taken 5 hours. We were kinda stuck though seeing as how we bummed a ride from someone.

ANYways,

Saturday was pretty awesome. After doing progress records and stuff, we made our way up to Enterprise. Very beautiful drive and place. I had heard ALL about the drive and city in previous areas and it did NOT disappoint.

We went to church Sunday in Enterprise and had lunch with a way fun family. We drove back to La Grande and had dinner with a way cool family. Hooray for cool families!haha.

So

Sunday was also very cool because I got to call home. This was WAY awesome. It's always so fun to hear from home on what's going on and stuff, and its SOOO much easier than writing. haha.

Yesterday we picked up a new investigator who is SUPER prepared. She loved everything we taught and was really really cool.

Well, that's my update. It might be the biggest one yet.

I love ya all and thanks for all you do!

-Love Elder Woods

STOMP - Woods & Forsyth Style Part II

Here is STOMP PART II
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nRjkXX_6jo

Payette Tour

Brad sent home a new SD card - This is the lovely town of Payette.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI7MnTIuSjo

They were not making fun of Andy Griffith. This cannot be stressed enough.

Hey everyone!
So I lucked out and got a last day in Payette. I leave tomorrow morning for La Grande Oregon...oragon...orange. I don't know how to spell it, but that's where I'm going. Its in a different time zone and WAY far from anyone else missionary-wise. My new comp is Elder Anderson. I've only met him a few times. He's 6'9". Crazy tall. I might be wearing a neck brace in a few weeks from looking up. Oh well. I look pretty forward to it. It should be fun.
But this week has been Pretty insane. (pretty with a capital P). Its been a lot of good-byes and pictures with people. I really will miss Payette. Its been my longest area and a TON of fun. There should be pictures of the Berrymans, the Youngbergs, Brother Fricke, Elder Boyes (going home thursday) and elder Wenzel (not going home Thursday, but one of my favorites), and...I can't remember what the other picture is. But it should be good. I'll include other pictures (of other families I gotta see tonight) next week. So I'll get down to the good story of the week. This Sunday (ya, another crazy Sunday). Jeremy came to church with us and we had a good time. It was pretty fun. It rained a little throughout the whole thing, but not too bad. During the second ward we went to is when the crazyness happened. So we're in class and the rain gets harder and harder. Then is the loudest rain I've ever heard. Why you ask? well, its because it was crazy huge HAIL and crazy strong wind! So I'm like, "yes, this is a really cool storm." I got some cool video of the hail. Anyways, this guy comes up and he's like, "well,there is a tornado warning for this area so we need to gather in the gym away from the windows". My companion (being from Missouri) is like a tornado expert and the hail all of a sudden stops and he turns to me and is like, "...its here..." OH MAN! I was so excited! It was totally gonna be like Twister. But, the tornado passed us. It was still pretty wild. After church on our drive home there were trees sideways,and branches in the road. It was pretty crazy.
Well, I gotta run.
I hope you all have a wonderfun mothers day and I'll talk to ya from LaGrande!
-Elder Woods

STOMP - Woods & Forsyth Style

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLNpemxjsr4
I just feel sorry for their neighbors!!!