The board is set. The pieces are moving (6/30/13)

Dear Family and Friends,

It's Transfer Day!  I thought the Lord of the Rings quote was fitting for the day, though the transfer board has been set since Friday. It is the largest transfer in the history of the Philippines Laoag Mission. We have 8 Elders departing, 20 becoming part of the new Baguio Mission, 34 incoming missionaries, 9 new areas, and lots of movement of missionaries through out the mission. Luckily for me and the other office Elders, we no longer have to stand around the bus station and help people get transferred, so we can get an almost normal P-Day before we have insanity the rest of the week. Yeah! I love transfer time though. IT is great to see the new missionaries and sad to say goodbye to the departing, but it is part of the moving forward of the work. 

In preparation for this transfer day, I have done a ton of traveling. Everyday this week except for Monday and Saturday and Sunday we were traveling to deliver furnishings and help get apartments ready. We went all the way to Buguey on Wednesday, which was an adventure involving lots of dead ends, including one on a half completed road where we had to reverse for about 1 km  before we could turn around. Then on the way back at about 8 pm the van hit a rock and got a flat tire, we were convoying with the van and truck, so we all helped change the tire. That took a while. And then after two days of running on 10 hours of sleep, we all had the chance to have a normal rest and then we celebrated Elder H\'s birthday.

Last night we finally got to see the World Wide Leadership Training Broadcast "The Work of Salvation". It is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to watch it again and I encourage all of you that have seen it to watch it again and if you missed it watch it. Right now! I love how it is all about working with the missionaries and how we all have a part in helping in the work of salvation, in the work and glory of our Heavenly Father. I really liked the stories that were shared in broadcast, like President Monson's story about the little town in Canada where the faith of the members moved the work along so fast that the went from meeting in a little rented basement to a beautiful chapel in just 2 years. All of the stories are so inspiring and motivating. President Barrientos has really been pushing working with the members more for a while and hopefully now the members will start pushing too. I know for us missionaries in the Laoag 1st ward we have had a great increased amount of support from the members in the past weeks. Our new ward mission leader is really awesome and the work in moving along.

I again want to encourage all of you to watch the broadcast again and think about what you can do to apply and follow the teachings and council given to us by the Apostles and the Prophet. I know that the Lord will bless us as we do our best to move his work along. As Elder Andersen said, "This is His work and He will not let us fail". I know the the principles taught come from our Heavenly Father and that by following them we can all help move the work along. I just heard President Barrientos say we had 97 baptisms in the mission in the month of June. Just imagine how many more are possible around the world as members and missionaries work together. Good bless you all as you assist in His work! Mahal kita! Kita Kits!

Elder Ryne Warren Wood