September 26, 2011 (Week 39)

Hello Mom,

All is well in Clarkston, rain is coming from the sky. But the weather has been nice latley, the fall is such a great time of year, it just feels warm and inviting, and it is the harvest season. Thank you for the stories that you sent me, they are so cool to read and to see all of the blessings that come from serving a mission.

Our trip to Ann Arbor was pretty good, it was raining last Monday too. Michigan State is in Ann Arbor, that campus is so large and cool. It was my first time going down there.

This last week was not that great because my companion got sick on Tuesday and it kept us in the apartment for most of the week, I am so thankful that I did not get sick. I'm pretty sure that I have been sick three times on my mission, when I came out on my mission, and two more times after that. And then we lost two of our investigators, the guy that his friend from California, and then Brother Ziegler. Even though we did not have that great of a week I was able to study quite a bit. And I had been wondering for a few weeks why we go through the temple before we go on our missions. As I started to read through Preach My Gospel I stopped on one of the study boxes, which was talking about our power and authority that we have as missionaries. It refered back to the dedicatory prayer from the Kirtland Ohio temple dedication, it talked about how we are given power, and that we will be supported by Angels as we go about declaring the gospel. It was just a neat expeirencience of finding answers from the scriptures.

Yesterday we had a missionary come home from the Rome Italy Mission. So of course I asked him if he knew Elder K, one of his good missionary friends actually trained him. It is just crazy to see all of the ways that people within the church are related to one another. Elder K wrote me a letter while he was back in the MTC and I never wrote him back. I need to do that pretty soon.

That is pretty cool that L was able to escort his sister on homecoming. Yeah I went on a letter writting blitz, I finally wrote a letter to Mr. D. Thank you again for that.

And WOW that is so crazy how big K is now, he is begining to look like a toddler now. Crazy how fast they grow up. I remember talking to Bishop H several years ago and he said that the time was going to fly by as I prepared to go on my mission. And yesterday at church we went in for the second lesson with the priest quorum and the lessons were on preparing to go on missions. Weird to think that I am on the flip sid of the table now.

But thank you again for the missionary stories and keep up the good work with you missionary efforts.
“Missionary work is but home teaching to those who are not now members of the Church,
and home teaching is nothing more or less than missionary work to Church members” - Harold B. Lee

I love all of you so much, and thank you for all of the support that you give.

Love Elder Wood