The start of something new‏

So you may notice that this, this may be short. Well you may also notice that this, this is a day and a half past when I said it would be. Well some junk happened. Let me tell you what.

So Christmas I got all sorts of stuff. We went all sorts of places and we did all sorts of things. Busiest Christmas of my life. Next year I'm definitely taking like a 3 hour nap. So we set another baptism date which is 3 for this month ready to go. That's cool beans. Here's why things got crazy. Saturday night we get a call at about 8 from the mission office. It's President Bassett, he talked to Elder Moa and was called to be a Zone leader in the Superstition zone in Apache Junction. People were glum as they discovered their favorite tongan missionary was leaving Snowflake. Elder Hadley thgouth since Elder Moa was leaving, that I must be leaving too. The zone leaders called at 9:30 and said Elder Hadley is going to Apache Junction to be with Elder Edmonds. I was going to get Elder Robertson (who you may remember from super early in my mission) he had been out 14 months.

We had a jammed packed Monday full of lessons and woeful goodbyes....until about 11. That's when the phone rang from President Bassett. He called to tell me that he put me with Elder Robertson because he had caught fire and was doing awesome and I was doing good and our area was doing great. He figured putting them all together would just do us all a lot of good. He then spoke to Elder Hadley a little bit and then told Elder Moa to have us leave tonight because Snowflake was going to get walloped by the storm of the week. We left abruptly, cancelling several appointments so they could pack.

We called up Scottsdale and asked if we could stay at their place. They agreed and we headed down. I have to say being in the valley was incredibly weird. I saw cactus's and palm trees again. It was warm. WARM!!!! And then I got a blast from the past staying in Scottsdale in the same zone I started out in. We went and we traded off elders this morning. I made the 3 hour drive back up here. Now I need to ask for extra miles. I really wasn't expecting this to happen. Woah. Now is the time to test to test my Snowflake knowledge.

Thanks for all the gifts and good wishes. I really enjoyed the letters and the gifts. Thanks! Now it's time for the new year. On New Year's Eve all the mission signs at the temple for the last night of Christmas lights. That is except for everyone in Snowflake. We will go unnoticed yet again. Oh well. Well here is to the start of a new year and a new experience. I think Elder Robertson and I will do great things here. I'll talk to y'all later. Peace out.

Love, Elder K-Wood

The best and saddest Sunday ever‏

Ugh, I'm tired right now. We had some good street contacts yesterday. I made one guy sweat. I'm really good at using analogies and asking questions. So I made this guy realize that God loves us and wouldn't leave us in the dark without revelation from him. He looked so stumped and quickly ended the conversation. Bahaha. Love it.

Well I honestly have been putting this off for the past few minutes because I kind of want to stare off into the nothingness of the wall because I am quite tired. This weekend was flipping fantastic though. Let me begin.

On Saturday we had a baptism at 8 in the morning for Jaimie and Jessica Overstreet. They are so amazing. The Overstreets are from Denver and are huge Denver Bronco fans. We can go off on football forever... and ever... and ever... My pro-football addicition has actually sevred me quite well while I have been up here. Made some allies because of my vast unimportant in the long run knowledge. Who would of known. Jaimie and Jessica's mom want me to teach them how to play the piano. They also asked me to play at their baptism because they heard me playing for a baptism earlier in November when the pianist didn't show. I had to make sure that I explained that I'm not good at that instrument I have tried and failed often. So they made me bring the uke to the baptism and I played that. It was an awesome time for them I was excited. Then right after that the zone leaders had a baptism and they had asked me to sing in it. So I did an Acapella(spelling?) version of "Come Follow Me". Then Sunday happened......

The Sundays before Christmas are simply delightful. The Christmas programs wards put on are usually pretty sweet. Then we get sing Christmas songs for hymns. AND I LOVE IT. Saturday night my voice got raspy. Sunday my voice was gone. At 9 I had to confirm Jaimie and Jessica members of the church and give them the holy ghost. Then after that I had to give a talk about bringing Christ into Christmas. I tried to sing the hymns to the best of my ability. But nothing. I couldn't sing the melody or the harmony without my voice cracking. So I sang the bass line as a glum little missionary(I hate the bass line). My talk had a good theme but it sounded like I was struggling to go through puberty or something. That'll be fun to be remembered by. But overall this weekend was simply awesome.

Your package did arrive today. Your fudge is as Elder would say and I quote "The greatest fudge ever". I'm taking the tin to district meeting tomorrow. We'll see what happens. Saturday we're having another baptism. This one is going to rock. She was suposed to have her baptismal interview last Saturday but backed out. We went to her house and taught her for 2 hours. It was one of the greatest lessons I've ever taught. She asked a lot of questions about her friends possibly abandoning her all that jazz after she was baptized. Thats when I had to use my own conversion to the extreme. I told her about after Kalab went on his mission and after I had gone to college it felt like I had been abandoned a little bit. Things weren't the same when I came home from college and that it was disheartening. I carefully explained to her how the Holy Ghost is a comforter and that though your friends and circumstances may change, God is always there. She was close but still wasn't there. And then Elder Moa explained that he had been praying for her to find out that this was true(she had been investigating for over a year), he began to cry when he said in the temple he prayed that she would find out that true happiness was through baptism. I was crying at this point to. I said if you do this, those fears and that sadness you feel will leave you immediately. She got straight face and asked me if I meant that. I said I know that and I asked her to pray to know if my promise to her was true. We got on our knees and prayed. We ended and sat silently, Elder Hadley then asked "how do you feel?" She responded indestructible. Elder Hadley said that's the Spirit in you right now. We then asked what should you do. She said I need to be baptized next week. She had her interview Sunday morning and is set to go. I'm so excited for that one.

Well I've probably bored you long enough. Christmas Eve we're going caroling to our investigators. Christmas we're having breakfast and I'll be calling at 3pm on Christmas. I'm pretty sure currently we're in the same time zone since Arizona does not recognize daylight savings. Be near the phone. I'm excited to talk to you and SPENCER VAN WAGENEN. His name deserves all capitals since I haven't seen him since he was a wee teenager(19). Well Peace out.

Love, Elder K-Wood/ Malcolm F. Caywood(Thats apparently what I'm going to name my kid when I'm older according to Elder Pebley).

Koli Poki‏

"I don't want a battle from beginning to end, I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge, I don't want to follow death and all of his friends" -Coldplay 2008-

On that note last week blew. I imagine you probably don't know what I'm talking about let me explain. Wednesday I got uber sick. In fact it knocked me out really goood. I couldn't keep anything down. I was really feelng sooooo bad. Wednesday night rolled around and I was companions with Elder Stewart since the Elders in the district had to scramble around to teach since I couldn't go out. Elder Stewart finally said "I want to help you, I feel like I'm not doing anything what can I do to help you?" I told him either kill me or take me to the doctor because I think I'm dying. We rushed off to Urgent Care I was now throwing up every 20 minutes. I filled out way too much paper work. Then went to the back. The tested me and I waited in agony wishing it would end. The doctor came in and he told me three things. First he said I think you have swine flu. Second he said my lungs were pretty messed up and handed me a new inhaler and an Advair disc which he said to take twice a day, I said for how long he said probably for the rest of your life(oh joy). Then he said I was in the advanced stages of dehydration. He said there was still a window where they could rehydrate me by mouth instead of an IV. He pumped full of a fluid which hurt really bad(anti nausea fluid). He said in about 15 minutes I would get tired and a little delrious. He said every 10 minutes take a small sip of Gatorade. He said I woldn't remember this probably and went to go tell my companions what to do in the lobby. He said if I got even a little worse I was on my way to the ER in Show Low. I remember the next 20 minutes or so but after that it was really fuzzy and apparently I was quite delirious. I was on quarantine for most of the week but am lucky I made it to Urgent Care and didn't wait til morning.

The reason my email is titled Koli Poki is because that is my new nickname here in Snowflake. Among the Elders at least. In tongan koli poki means white boy with weak stomach. Wooooo....

The rest of my time since last week I've been pretty drugged up. Let me tell you being on quarantine as a missionary is the worse feeling in the world. No Tv, no musice, no internet. NOTHING. For 24 hours. Friday I slept 16 hours. In the process of boredom. I read every letter I've ever gotten on my mission. Got to say that Sister Van Wagenen and SIster Henrie take first place because they've written me(far more) than anyone else. Mad props to them. Right now I'm feeling a lot better I think this is clearing up.

Monday we had a bit of a miracle. We had been teaching this girl for a long time. We talked to her foster mom on Sunday and said that this girl had expressed interest in being baptized. We went to teach the lesson and within 5 minutes she had borne her testimony of the church and showed her desire to baptized and understood why it was important. She had been taught for over a year and never seemed to care about what we said. Now she said in last week it just makes sense, she is being baptized on the 26th. We were so shocked. I swear Elder Moa just laughed for like 30 minutes straight. It was hilarious. We didn't know what to say.

Yesterday was interviews with President. I gave a steller talk on how to have a change of heart. It was so awesome. My interview went well. He let me know a lot of things. I got to the point in my interview where I said you know in my last area I felt like I had super member trust with the people there. He said well of course you did, thats why I put you up here. To make that member trust again. Since so many people are members up here if I can gain their trust we could start teaching a lot more. Awesome.

Well thats all I got Laterz and Peace out.

love, Elder K-Wood

Temple Excursion‏

I do apologize because I must be brief. The snow storm we had last night really put a hold on things today and we have to be somewhere at 2. And its currently 1:40. Which means my normal hour of emailing has been shortened to just 20 minutes yikes. Oh well.

Well the main thing I want to talk about is the temple excursion we had on Friday. Let me explain, over the course of 3 days every missionary in the mission goes to the temple with President and Sister Bassett. Our group went on Friday being the only group to go to the Snowflake temple. We had a brief conference where President Bassett and Sister Bassett both spoke briefy. They spoke powerfully of the meaning of Christmas and how they desired to instill in us the desire to do the Lord's work(President Bassett has centered a lot of things around desire for the past 2 transfers so I think it must be important). We then went to the temple. The Snowflake temple is quite amazing. The windows seem like they're made of ice. Though it is a quaint little thing its still breath taking. I thought that was just the boost I needed for the week! Woot.

We've been working rather hard. The weather has made it harder to find people on the streets to talk to. No one will brave the cold weather so are finding numbers have dropped. We have two people scheduled for baptism on the 19th and one on the 9th of January. Thats going to be fun. The family that is being baptized on the 19th are huge Bronco fans. Yesterday we talked about how much we despised the Raiders, Chiefs, and Chargers(I hate those stupid teams). It was simply brilliant. I enjoyed it.

I'm still trying to get over this wretched cold. I've been coughing and stuffed up for essentially two weeks now. It really stinks. I'm not sure if asthma or a cold. Slows be down a bit but hey what I can I do? I'm still alive and I'm not running a fever or anything.

I have a story about the founding of Snowflake. The Mormon pioneers were on their way to Mesa and had to stop for the night. The wind was cold and they were tired. They said that if the wind stopped blowing they would leave to Mesa as soon as possible. Over 100 years later the wind still hasn't stopped blowing. Bhahaha, I thought it was funny. Maybe its just because I'm lame. Oh well.

That's about all I got and have time for. Peace Out.

Love, Elder K-Wood

"YOU RAISE ME UP!!!!"‏

So I'm doing things a little differently this week to ensure that I say everything that I need to say. Generally during my email time I write back to everyone I can and then write this monster. But today I have some things I need to do this afternoon so I'm doing this first and fast!

What to note what to note. Oh yeah duh Thanksgiving. We had too much food and I felt like poop the rest of the weekend. But that's ok. I'm actually getting better at basketball. I can now make 3 shots in 30 minutes. Yeah thats intense Like like .1 shots made per minute. On Thanksgiving I had a back cramp so I couldn't throw during football but for some reason I had glue hands and I actually out ran somebody. I never outrun anybody.

Because we are in a trio we are often seperated to go teach with other missionaries. It's been a good experience as I have been able to grow closer to the missionaries around me and rely on the spirit to tell me what to teach since several people I teach I've never met and will probably not see again.

This week I was priveledged to speak in one of our wards. I talked about the chaos that ensued around me and in my mind as I started my mission. Then I talked about having the oppurtunity to baptize and how important that is and that theres nothing like it on earth. I challenged the youth to prepare to go on missions to answer the call of the rising generation and to invite all to Christ regardless of what they've done. I felt it was one of the most powerful moments for me. I've never spoke like that in my life. The Bishop even came up to me and said excellent job. He even came back after that and said that you did such ana amazing job. It was rocking.

Yesterday was weird. We taught two bizarre lessons. The first one the lady kept felling asleep so we just kind of said we'd come back and left. The lesson we taught that afternoon, and right before we started teaching these two dogs in the house got into a fight and one was tore up pretty good. So we deviated from our original plans and taught something else. So weird.

Its really cold up here. I'm freezing. We were chopping wood yesterday and I had my huge coat on and my scarf wrapped around my head. I looked so stupid. Oh well its cool. Having 6 wards is really overwhelming. I'm still trying to get it but I feel I will, so I'm not that worried.

I'll head out laterz.

LOVE, ELDER k-wood