Birthday Letter (9/1/13)

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you all for all of the Happy Birthday wishes! I have a couple of pictures attached from Thursday night when we went to Yellow Cab pizza to celebrate. That was a blast. That is one of the things that President and Sister do for the office Elders to try to ease the load of stress. Too bad for Elder VB he was on exchanges with the zone leaders in Bacarra, so Elder P got to join in the party.

It has been such an insane week. I realize that I most likely say that every week, but this week was more so than usual. Everything was pretty normal until Wednesday. President has been traveling doing interviews and he arrived on Wednesday. On Wednesday we were in flood lock down due to the rain. Lots of houses in Laoag got flooded, but luckily we didn't. We did office work and that was when the craziness started. I ended up picking up a sick missionary and taking him and his companion to the hospital, then Elder VB and I went to Vigan. The couple missionary finished their mission a few weeks ago and we need to get the furnishings from their apartment. But the truck had to go to Manila for repairs, so it had to be done that night. So we left for Vigan at 9 pm and got there around 10:45. With the help of the Elders in Vigan 2 we got everything out and where it needed to be and headed back. We got back around 3 am. So tired. I am still alive though.

This past week had its ups and downs on teaching. The biggest down was on Sunday. We went with Pres. Macanalay from the Stake Presidency to pick up E and R for Church. They had to go somewhere so they told us not this time. Then as we were driving away we got a text from them telling us that we don't need to come back again. They dumped us. E said her husband who is working abroad doesn't want her to keep listening to the message. As sad as it is, we have to respect their agency and just pray that when they have the chance again they will accept the invitation to be baptized. 

On the flip side, we had a couple of good lessons with Sister R and with the S family. Sister R committed to baptism on October 12, but we are still working to help her find a way to not work on Sunday, we have a few ideas, but we are still looking. We also had a great lesson with the S family yesterday. It was lead by our  ward mission leader, since the ward has added the family to our focus. It was all about the blessings of temples. I realized that it was exactly a year to the day that I received my endowment. I miss being able to go to them temple and look forward to the day when I can go again. I know that in the temple we are in the house of God. He has commanded his people to build temples so that we can do the needed ordinances for ourselves and for those who have gone on before. It is a great blessing and we should all show our thanks for it by attending as often as our situation permits. By the ordinances of the temple, we can become eternal families and what a blessing that is.

I hope everything is going well for everyone. I am very grateful for the prayers you offer for the missionaries. I helps us so much. Keep up the work in doing missionary work and helping move along the work of Salvation.There is no greater work than this!

Elder RWood