"Its flipping freezing up here Mr. Bigglesworth"(Dr. Evil from Austin Powers). That is code for I can't feel my feet bah they are so cold. Its cold here. COLD. Coldcoldcoldcoldcold!!!! I hate the cold. Blargalsmarf!(Yes I just made a new obscene word you may interpret it if you like). But seriously the wind and snow blew sideways all day yesterday. I felt like an old school knockin' doors in the snow missionary. Which leads to say two things. One is a song. "Knockin' doors in the rain. People think that we're insane. We wear ties and don't chew gum. People think that these rules are dumb." and another thing I'd like to say is an old missionary legend "For every house you knock in the rain or snow is another hour your future wife spends in the gym". A bad motive for it but a motive to do it nonetheless! BahahaLast week I mentioned some rather large changes that could be happening. At the risk of starting rumors I kept my mouth shut on what it was. It turned out I was right. A few weeks ago I was on an exchange with an assistant to the President. I said our area has a lot of work in it and could really be split up. He said that a few other areas could use that too and what its coming down to is that we would need to split the mission. I felt some prophecy in his voice. Last Tuesday we found out why. A new mission is opening. The New Mexico, Farmington mission is being made and will be opened on July 1st. It will basically have the entire Navajo Reservation in it and any surrounding areas. For us that means 8 missionaries who serve in our part of the reservation will be putinto a different mission which encompasses 1/3 of Utah, 1/3 of Arizona, 1/8 of Colorado, and 1/4 of New Mexico. Its really incredible to hear about. So if I get transferred to the res that will mean that I will be put in a different mission. We'll see what happens.
So this weekend we had 2 more baptisms. It was amazing! I loved it. I baptized one of them and Elder Robertson the other. The girl I baptized asked me to sing "Abide with me tis' Eventide" acapella. I flipping nailed it!. Such a good service. That girl was so prepared and I think I learned quite a bit from teaching her. The other baptism was a navajo kid who's family is getting active. All of his family was there and the spirit was strong which was good because we had an investigator who was there and now wants to be baptized because she was there. As we were walking back to the chapel the girl said to me "Seeing that makes me want to baptized" I said "When will you do it?" she said "Before you leave." I said "Ok it'll have to be in a month then because thats when I think I'm leaving"(which was stretching the truth). She said she'd work on it. We're teaching that family tonight.
The title states "A point proven?". Let me explain. When I first got here Elder Hadley noticed something that I always denied. He said that all the girls from about 12-15 here can't keep their eyes off of you. I denied it but it quickly became the inside joke of the district. Elder Hadley got transferred and I told the other Elders who were still here to stop because I had enough of it. Yesterday it re-established itself as the joke again. I was talking to the grandma of a 10 year old and a 12 year old yesterday. They had to cancel their lesson yesterday but said they had decided who they wanted to baptize them. I asked who. She said "Well Elder Caywood Brittany has a thing for blonds if you catch my drift". The phone was on speaker and Elder Robertson laughed for about5 minutes straight saying "I told you it was true". *sigh* so that's my story.
This week we're having another baptism for a guy named Dave. He's from back east and way cool. I love that guy he's come such a long way and I'm way excited for his baptism too. I'm suposed to be the musical number at that baptism too so his wife is going to call this morning and tell me what she wants me to sing. I have to say that is so incredible that Sarah is going to Nationals. You'll have to video tape it for me so I can watch when I come back. Well thats all I got. Peace Out.
Love, Elder Caywood
Its been a fairly good week for us thus far. We've set 4 more dates for baptism, and that should happen within the month. We had one on Saturday. There were several non-members there so I took the oppurtnity to do what I call a little "sermon". It seemed to Elder Robertson and I that there were very few dry eyes in the crowd after our remarks. As for the baptism itself it was amazing. The spirit was so flippin' strong there I loved it. There were some amazing music numbers and such. There were some very good talks and I met the parent of someone I was in the MTC with which was admittingly a little trippy. But we were able to pull it together and it turned out to be awesome! We have 2 more baptisms on Saturday one for Brett and one for Lacy. I hope we can keep refilling our teaching pool we're seeing a lot of blessings right now because of it.
We got our key indicators(or what we did for the week for the zone). Out of all the missionaries Elder Robertson and I taught a 3rd of the lessons and we have almost half od the baptism dates. It is truly remarkable in my opinion to see how well our area is doing and how well it continues to do. If we pray hard enough and work hard enough the Lord will continue to bless us and we'll have another companionship up here soon! I sure hope that happens.
Well I think that it is interesting to note that this time last year was a very significant time for me. For starters he 13th of last Febuary I got layed off from my lovely warehouse job. On the 14th I took a vow of a little over two years to dedicate myself to missionary work and staying away from girls(ironically on Valentine's day) and go through the temple for myself with the Van Wagenens(word). Then on the 15th I was able to recieve my patriarchal blessing(if you need this defined ask Adam Muffler he explains better than Wikipedia or the Bible Dictionary). To be honest that was a huge weekend last year and this year it wasn't as big. On Valentine's day I was subbing breifly for a 16-17 year old Sunday School class. I taught them to learn how to have the love of the Savior and serve their fellow man. Not any of this gooey pg-13 Valentine romance GAR-BAAAAGGGGEEE. They didn't listen but that's cool, it'll serve them well in the future if they remember.
I can't believe that the Adam Muffler is home. I have to say that his testimony in his last letter home was simply beautiful. He puts it in such simple words the church of Christ is on the Earth. Love that guy! Yesterday I got to go on an exchange while Elder Robertson evaluated another missionary. I got to be with Elder Weight for the day, he's been out for about 5 months and hales from Ogden Utah. He's got a great heart and is a good missionary. But to my suprise I was able to teach him quite a bit. Maybe somebody can benefit from the use of my brain heh.
Well as for those big changes that email is titled for I'm honestly not sure. One thing I am sure of is that President Bassett is being released in June and the new mission president is being announced fairly soon. The zone leaders also said that there are some changes coming and that we'll find out about them on Monday. Elder Stewart sounded excited about it on the phone but they said that no beans will be spilled until next Monday at zone conference. I have an idea of what will be said but I will hold my peace in the attempt to not start rumors.
Well things here are good, I have to say that I have no idea what's happening in the winter Olympics, nobody in Snowflake cares. Oh well peace out.
Love, Elder K-Wood
Let me tell you of a man I once knew. I was a wee lad in the MTC, about 30lbs lighter than I am today (I know I'm fat, get the freak over it). I met a young man but old man named Elder Bickmore. We had a swell time together. I was the weird convert and he.....and he was just crazy and still is. We came out of the MTC and got put in Phoenix together and were trained by our respective trainers. In July, they sent Elder Bickmore to AJ, but to my surprise I found out I would follow him again and we would be in the same district until I was moved to Snowflake. 7 1/2 months I spent with Elder Bickmore in the same district. 3 months without him and now no longer. He has been moved to Heber which means its Elder Caywood and Elder Bickmore in the same district for the 4th time. AWESOME!!!!!
Well that's all I got on that department besides that things are going well. We had a huge change last week. The Payson zone was dissolved into the Snowflake zone and the reservation was made its zone called the painted desert. So we have now inherited Payson which is cool because that's where Elder Edmonds is. Elder Robertson was made the new District Leader on Saturday. That means he'll be busy and I'll get to once again go along for the ride. We are hoping to split our area next transfer but we never know so we'll see what happens. We set another date yesterday and we have our baptism coming up this week. I'm really really excited things are quite amazing here. We had an area record for us with 86 street contacts last week but Taylor wooped all of us with 177 street contacts. Can you believe it? Taylor only has 2000 something people in it. A-mazing.
This transfer is going to be great. I think things will only continue to get better and better. I don't have a terrible amount to say, today I got my teeth cleaned by the only catholic guy in the office. I also bought a dream catcher and some ghetto petrified wood necklace. Oh well I gotta support Navajos some how. I went to get a new driver's license today but I realized that mine doesn't expire until 11 days after my mission ends so all and all I don't need one. Yay!!! Woo. I took some rad videos this week and yes I did say rad. They'll blow your flipping socks to China. Which is far away.
Well I'm going to attempt to start working out again which will be hard because I like to vegetate in the morning. Oh well. Onward to victory!!!!!!!!!!! Peace out!
Love, Elder K-Wood
Hola coma estes?
I learned how to say hello in Navajo but I'm not quite sure how to put it into words(its especially hard since they don't have a written language). This week as I have said has been incredibly good for us. We have seen so many miracles, though sometimes they seem to come out of no where I don't really care it has been so amazing to watch this happen and I am grateful to be a part of it.
So let me elaborate a little. This week we've been able to do missionary work very effectively. We set two more baptism dates for next month bringing our total to 5. We are hoping to set 3 more this week. Its really been amazing it seems like we are being blessed cause I'm serious these people are popping up out of no where. One's name is Dave he is getting baptized on the 27th. He's so cool!!! When I come back and visit I'm staying at their house. He's made so many changes and has been so strong its incredible. Another one is Fabiola she is 14 and has been waiting for her mom to come back from Mexico which is happening this month. She is also set for the 27th. Cody is another one being baptized a week from Saturday. He's 17 and his parents aren't members of the church. He had gotten a hold of a Book of Mormon prayed about it and found out it was true. He wanted to more and prayed that someone would tell him more, he said within an hour a friend had invited him to meet the missionaries. Another on is Brett he's 9. His family has been less active since the death of a family member a few years ago. His mom a month ago said we need to go to church and do what God wants us to do. They are now back on track and he's being baptized on the 20th. The one we set last night is for a girl named Lacie who took the lessons for a year. Her parents she was ith in foster care didn't care for the church and wouldn't let her be baptized. She fell of the map for about 6 months and popped up again having been adopted by a family who also didn't care much for the church but are ok with her being a part of it seeing as its nothing bad. She said she would cry at night because she couldn't be baptized, that one is set for the 20th as well. Once again being part of this for just over 2 years now has really helped with a lot of these people being able to relate to me. They think its kind of cool that I know what they are going through. Its a blessing and privilege for me really.
My goal at the moment is to ask better questions. I think good questions make people think about things. I have a goal to ask at least 2 good questions every time i meet somebody. We had a good one the other day. Someone was working in the street. We drove up to them and told them a little bit about what we do and the Book of Mormon. He said was a member of a different faith and had missionaries at his house before. I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon. He said yes so I asked if he had read and prayed about it. He said no he didn't need to its not true. We then asked the question "Where's the faith in that?" Dumbfounded he stood speechless for like 30 seconds and then asked us to have a nice day. I wish people would just open their heart up just a sliver. The Grinch did and he saved Christmas!!! Maybe that's a bad example. Oh well.
Elder Robertson and i are teaching a lot. In fact a lot a lot. We're 2nd most out of the 9 companionships in the zone. We contribute to a 4th of the lessons taught in the zone up here. And the best part is... Its increasing! President Bassett did our interviews on Thursday and I talked to him about there being so much work that we need to split the area. He said that if we can get 30 lessons a week regularly then he'll do it and then he said it should be my personal goal. He said before I leave Snowflake I need to split the area. We will I know it. The Lord is putting too many people our path for it not to. Its what He wants.
I know we can accomplish anything as we become a little humbler and let God do what He does. Its not easy but sometimes the hardest things and the right things are the same. How is Elder Bearnson doing? I was thinking about him last week. Well laterz and as always peace out.
Love, Elder K-Wood(A.k.a. Elder Hollywood some dang little kids started calling me that again, I thought I escaped that in my first area)
