November 7. 2011

Dear Family,
Life sounds pretty crazy right now. So Bro. Evans and Bro. Standage had heart attacks, and Bro. Shepard is sick? Wow, you never know what will happen next. But, we have the gospel so even in hard times we can receive peace and comfort. When I was in the hospital for my cyst it was hard on me. I wanted to be out working. It wasn't that big of a deal and it is silly to complain, but it happened. I loved my realization that Christ is always with us. Anytime we struggle or have a hard time we can pray, read, or listen to music and it helps. God is so wonderful to provide so many ways to receive peace, comfort, and strength.
My nieces and nephews are super cute. The Neiswender family looks like they are happy and prosperiing well. I am glad that Cole is getting bigger and stronger each and every day. Curtis makes an awesom bear and Heidi is a very cute pumpkin (Halloween). She has a great smile.
Life in the Philippines - it is awesome. We have lots of study time and we have plenty of people to teach. It is hard, but good. I am trying hard to participate in the lessons. I am trying to stay focused, but listening to a different language for 8 hours straight is hard. It is coming along though. I am working on learning 6 new words a day. This week Elder and Sister Arden, first counselor in the area presidency, I think, spoke to us. I learned we as missionaries need to focus on teaching better so we retain more members. We have a lot of less actives in our branch. That is why we are still a branch and not a ward. We learned that we need to flood the earth with the Book of Mormon. We need to focus more on it because it is the key to conversion. One of the things I learned today at our district meeting with the teaching assistants, is to let the Book of Mormon speak for itself or let the Book of Mormon teach people and answer their questions.
Last Saturday we had a temple tour. We had 11 people come. A recent convert mom, Sister Siapoc and 3 of her kids, her husband's brothers wife, wo is an investigator and their 3 kids attended. Also Bro. Santa Anna and his 2 kids. We rented a bus as a zone. It was packed. It held 58 people or so and we had maybe 65 on the bus. The temple is awesome and some other missionaries taught about the ordinances that go on in the temple. It was in Tagalog and my companion and I were trying to keep the kids from distracting the parents. We did an ok job. Hopefully they will remember the spirit they felt there. At the end of the day after we had eaten it started to rain hard. Then the bus got stuck in traffic on its way back. It was a long day but good.
I think I am healing. There is a space still but getting better. My comp and I get along alright, Elder Kaka is awesome. He is one of the best in the mission. He is good at planning and teaching. He has been zone leader for about half of his mission. He helps me with Tagalog, maybe not as much as a Filipino comp. could but he teaches me about the people and the culture, how to find people, making lesson plans and setting goals. I am glad I have an awesome trainer. Luckily for the both of us he doesn't have to pack the wound. He just puts oitment on gauze and tapes it to the wound. The tape is the worse part.
So Tagalog is one of the easier languages. They throw in some english words as well. The hardest part is making sentences on the spot and having decent grammar. There aren't many words to describe gender. They just say brother or sister in english. I like it. It is hard but I know I can do it.
Thank you for your letters. I love you lots and wish you the best. I love to hear from you and how life is in Arizona/California/Utah/and Iowa. I love you lots and wish you another awesome week.
Love Elder Woolf