Sunday, October 15, 2017

Week 78

September 23, 2017

Good afternoon everybody,

This week has been crazy, I have traveled from Kingston to many different places this week including downtown, Mandeville, hopeton, Junction, and Port Antonio. The main reason being is to find houses for the missionaries so they can better focus on the work. I also got to proselyte in just about all of those areas this week.

Zone Conference was this week and it was awesome. I learned that many small and simple things bring about the accomplishment of bigger things. Like obedience to a small rule can bring about a great blessing not because your doing just the small thing, but it helps you better obey the bigger things as well.

Well, I gotta get going, I will talk to you all later.

Sincerely,


---Elder Wood



A few pictures of the past week,


First one is me looking towards the Son :) along the coastline of Kingston earlier today.


The second is me helping someone on the other end of the phone and walking down a trail in the dark to go visit an investigator.


The last one is another beautiful view of Jamaica.

From,

---Elder Wood---

Week 77

September 16, 2017

Morning y'all,

So these weeks have been crazy last week there were 17 new missionaries that came in, as well as 6 out of 8 missionaries came to Jamaica from Bahamas and Turks. It was crazy. We have them all housed and where they need to be.

As we have spent less time in our area (due to helping all these missionaries) I have learned to be more grateful for the time that we have been called to serve out here. It really is a special opportunity to focus all of our efforts to the Lord's work. I am grateful for all of you and also everyone that I have been able to meet out here.

Sincerely,


---Elder Wood---


Morning everyone,

 

The first is a picture of me trying to revive the internet at the office after the building was struck be lightning.


The second is the May Pen market that we visited last week.


The third and final picture is our APs (Assistants to the President) hard at work.


---Elder Wood---

Week 76

September 9, 2017

Good afternoon,

I don't have time to write too much right now, my companionship as well as the other office elders traveled to May Pen to bring some elders some supplies as well as shop in the town market.

We have a lesson with some awesome people tonight; Denzel who is a networker for one of the local banks, the Reynolds who know just about everybody in Jamaica, and Andy and his family who is a spiritual giant.

I am not gonna send out an email until Monday due to time constraints but I do hope that the fires die down. Maybe you need a hurricane where the fire is to help put it out, Irma passed by us and all we got was a little rain, but Turks and Caicos where we had some missionaries was estimated to be 6 feet underwater when the hurricane came. No missionaries were harmed, infact those missionaries stayed with us in our house for a few nights before being reassigned to May Pen.

I was able to prepare phones for the new missionaries, but I haven't gotten enough spares to give to the off-islanders while they are here. Its an adventure for them because four elders are sharing one phone.


---Elder Wood---

Week 75

September 2, 2017

In this coming week there will be 17 new missionaries in our mission. We have 85 missionaries right now, so between the ones leaving this week and the 17 coming in, there are gonna be a lot of changes. I realized this week that they all need phones so I am working on getting phones for all the new companionship's, but that's just logistics.

We have been finding and teaching those that God has allowed us to find as he has been preparing them. We are meeting with this large family yard where many of them are members but stopped coming a long time ago, and many others have never been members. We also met some families that have always wondered what missionaries are about. Its been a wonderful experience with all of them. We feel that some are very close to baptism and the rest will be on their way shortly.

I wish you all the best and I will talk to you next week,


---Elder Wood---




First is my companion thinks he is swaggin with those glasses, Elder Kirby found them and gave them to Elder Menlove.



Second is is dropping of our District Leader. Elder Epps, and one of our zone leaders, Elder Callister, in downtown Kingston.



Third is Brother Pryce who joined us for lunch when we ate out. He does office work for the chapels and such for the church on the island.

---Elder Wood---

Week 74

August 28, 2017

Good afternoon all,

I am indeed writing on a Monday, we moved our preparation again for zone preparation day. I should be writing you all on Saturday again at the end of this week. I am continuously getting surprised with things both inside the office and out in the field. I am learning to handle the surprises better.

A funny story from this past week was when I was driving in town and stopped at the stoplight and I realized that the eclipse was taking place. I stuck my head out the window and looked at it, not the best idea, but I did get a glimpse of it.

We have met some wonderful people this past week. We are working on preparing them to enter the waters of baptism, I will update y'all more on Saturday.

Well, my time is up, so I will talk to you all later,


---Elder Wood---

Week 73

August 19, 2017

Morning all,

This week has been crazy, we decided on Wednesday to shutdown a house in Linstead. It was crazy to clean that house. My companion also helped some sister move out of their house and into another one on Thursday, meanwhile I was making trips to Courts for furnishings and to Yallahs to pick up and drop off an elder that needed his eyes checked.

I am also learning the importance of a statement made by the apostle Elder Hales 
“When you cannot do what you have always done, then you only do  what matters most.”

I am beginning to understand that quote a lot better. I know that what matters most is living and then sharing the gospel. It will provide those who live it with joy throughout the eternities.

I wish y'all the best,


---Elder Wood---






I realized that I didn't take any pictures since Monday so I decided to take some pictures of the office of chaos. Everything is suppose to have a place...guess I must have been dreaming when I saw my desk clean a few days ago :P I will include more in the coming emails about whats going on.

---Elder Wood---

Week 72

August 14, 2017

Good afternoon everyone,

You might be wondering why I am emailing on Monday. We had an amazing zone conference with Elder Alonso. I was also able to setup the audio for this as well as connecting in the off-Island missionaries. That was an amazing experience. We are also trying to close the mission office by 4 o'clock everyday in order to better go out and proselyte. It is a different work load but it allows us to better fulfill our responsibility as missionaries.

(At the time that I am writing this, my office is being pillaged because I have the storage room attached to mine and it is preparation day.)

I continue to study and increase my spiritual strength and power, I hope and wish that you all do the same.

Talk to you Saturday,


---Elder Wood---



Greetings,

So this week was adventurous. First picture is of a sound board that we used for zone conference.

I will explain more about that in the upcoming email.



As for the next two, the other office elders, the ones who run all over the island for me, got ahold of my computer and left a few extra pictures on it so here you go.



The last one is a picture of a fountain that we always pass on the way to the office.
  
---Elder Wood---

Week 71

August 5, 2017

It has been an adventurous week these past few days. We realized that some missionaries are about to get to the island and we don't have a place for them to stay. Don't worry, we got it worked out.

While I have been here in the office I have realized how vital it is to not only use the time that we have been given as missionaries, but to use it well. Since we spend so much time here in the office, we don't get to go out as often as we used to be able to. It makes us desire to serve our fellow men. I will turn to our Heavenly Father to help me figure things out, because without Him I wouldn't know what to do in the office, or as a missionary.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and use it well.


---Elder Wood---


So, I woke up and I went to make my egg sandwich for the morning and I realized that the loaf I had frozen wasn't sliced. It wasn't a different brand, it just wasn't sliced.



We also visited the APs this morning and they told us that they had 9 gallons of ice cream in their freezer.




Here are some other pictures that we took while we were exploring houses. We didn't get these houses, but we did look at them.

---Elder Wood---