Monday, October 28, 2013

Week 3

so this week has been a lot better. some days go by fast but others take forever but it is crazy how fast the week goes by! but we learned a great lesson on being obedient this week! so last Monday night it was raining so hard that there was major flooding in the road. but we still had to go work. so we pretty much had to kick our selves out of the apartment and go contacting. no buddy would come to the door they would look out the window and say not interested and just as we were about to go home. the Thomas family let us in and we got to teach them the restoration and they were actually interested. which was a miracle! we have worked with them a lot this week and the have a baptismal date for the 30th of November i am so excited and hope that they will be ready for this day!
so next we met with a man named phenier. he said he had been to all of the other churches and knew something was missing. so he said our church was the last one he would try and if it wasn't true he would lock himself in his room and read the bible and that would be his religion! but i know he will find out it is true and that he has a baptismal date for the 16th of November! it will hopefully be a busy month for us i hope because we have 5-7 investigators that have baptismal dates for this month. i hope they start to keep there commitments because we went another week with no investigators at church which means they cant get baptized yet so i pray for them to come next week! keep your fingers crossed.
so this week we did an exchange so i was with elder laufatte walking. lets just say i am so grateful that i have a  car it is so nice and i am blessed. but i have never been so sore in my life!. haha  we have another one next week but i will be ready and it will be better. 
also we had a ward talent show and the people here are really talented. it was nice to be able to relax for a little and not worry about the stress of missionary life.
OH also i have learned to enjoy cleaning! me and elder telga blast the Mormon tabernacle choir and just go crazy it is so fun and nice to be able to laugh and enjoy each other.
also i have learned a great lesson from Alma 57:21 and i have loved to remember what my mom has taught me and i know that it has helped me so much and to be exactly obedient.I LOVE YOU !!!I LOVE YOU !!!I LOVE YOU !!!I LOVE YOU !!!I LOVE YOU !!!I LOVE YOU !!!I LOVE YOU !!!I LOVE YOU !!!I LOVE YOU !!!I LOVE YOU !!!I LOVE YOU !!!
Love your elder
Elder Woodruff

Monday, October 21, 2013

Week #2

So this week has been somewhat better. I have been studying and praying a lot about the homesickness and I found the scripture D&C 31 and that helped A LOT! So let me tell you about some of our investigators! First there is Kimberly she is 28 and has a daughter she had told us that the day before we showed up her and the daughters father had had a big separation that involved the cops so it was funny that we showed up cause she was looking for something like us in her life. She is so nice and I think she understands and wants to know the truth. I think she will progress really good. It's crazy how God works like that in our lives. The next is 2 sisters Keoma and Keshana they are 28 and 20. We have taught them 2 times and I think Keshana is starting to know the truth but Keoma is stuck on the prophet thing which is hard but we are trying to help her through they are so nice. We have to sit outside their door and they stay inside to teach them though because there is not another male in the house it's the same with Kimberly as well. And a lot of people like that we teach. The next is Steing. He is 22 and he has a strong testimony but he is afraid of what his mom would do if he joined the church. We fasted with him on Friday and within an hour he called us and said "I met the Mormons" he had met a couple that were on there honeymoon and they testified to him of the truth of the gospel and he told them what we had taught him. It was a great experience. Next is Krystal. She was a prog. investigator before I got here. But the problem is that she was living with her boyfriend so she couldn't be baptized. Once we taught her the law of chastity though she knew she had to change so she decided to move out and now she has a baptism date for the 23 of November. We are just praying that she keeps her commitments to be able to be baptized. Next we met a less active member the other day whose name is Bernadette. She is older and didn't really want to talk to us very much at first but we finally broke the ice and she opened up really well she wanted us to teach her about the ranks of authority in the church and draw a pic. Then at the end she asked if we would sing to her "I am a child of god." I'm sure it didn't sound the best but i know the spirit was there.
Then she said the closing prayer and she said thank you for sending these young men at this time that my spirits have been down and allowing me to have peace and joy in my life again. That hit me so hard I know that we were suppose to be there at that exact time for a reason! And don't worry about me eating I eat fine and I'm trying to eat healthier and we work out all the time. I drink a lot of water it is my favorite now because I sweat a lot. But i have lost a lot of weight since i got here. I now weight 112 pounds but i know that I just lost all of the fat I had and I will gain it back in muscle! Don't worry I am still healthy and drink a lot of water. my comp thinks I am a  camel. I am now a pro at ironing shirts because I have to do it every morning no matter what but I can do a shirt in 1 minute or less haha! Pictures are on there way so you can just ask my mom to see them and show you the places. I love you so much. And really the only problem I have is I don't sleep the best so I struggle getting up and going and I wish I could sleep through the whole night for once haha but it should get better. The church here is just a branch and half of the branch is med students that are studying here but its nice and the weather is good except today it has rained more than the first BYU game I ever went to there is 1 1/2 feet of water in the road its crazy. I pray for you each night and morning and always remember that I love you so so so much! NEVER FORGET THAT!!!! I LOVE YOU! I love you!
Love
Elder Woodruff

Monday, October 14, 2013

The Hardest Week

Today was Nate's P-Day. As I was emailing with him back and forth he mentioned that he is very homesick. He is keeping his spirits up though and knows what he is doing is right. He said he lived off Ramen Noodles the last week but they finally had a chance to go grocery shopping today. Luckily his companion knows how to cook! ;) Here is the email he sent home...

wow can I say what a week. you know how I said that the week in the mtc was the hardest week of my life. well I lied( I know that's bad to do as a missionary) but I didn't know that it could get harder than that. this week has been really been a real trial for me. I have been so homesick. I didn't know any one could get so homesick! I love all of your support though. I Love You. so my companion is elder telga he is from the island of Martinique in the WIM( west indies mission). he speaks French and went to the mtc for English so some times he is hard to understand but we communicate good. when I got to Trinidad and talked to president Mehr he told me about my companion and said " oh it would probably be a good idea to learn French!" so I am trying to learn French. he is 23 and was baptized 2 years ago. he is amazing. the island is beautiful at the beach areas and were the tourist visit. but there is a lot of places that tourist don't see and they can get pretty scary. but I love it here and I love the people they all are so nice even if they don't want us to come back they just make appointments and then never follow up which is kind of frustrating but oh well that's how it is I guess. it is hot here and I sweat so much like a gallon or more a day haha:) ok probably not that much but a lot! I love you! we have another set of elders and a set of sisters as well and one senior couple but they leave in December. we are suppose to get another senior couple soon but they wont know French so we don't know how well they will be able to communicate. but my scariest moment came the other night while we were contacting in an apartment complex. we met a man named tony. tony seemed so excited to see us and so I thought he was ready to resieve the gospel and be baptized! I was completely wrong. he was a Jehovah witness along with his wife. so basically he bible bashed with us for 45 minutes and every time we tried to answer be kept talking so he was talking to himself. then when we went to leave he said not even to pray on our knees that night because it allows satan to grab us. I know that I was basically talking to satan face to face that night. it really helped my testimony though. it testified to me that this is the true gospel on the earth today and that joseph smith is a true prophet of God and was called to do his work. Everything in this gospel is true and if it wasn't the missionaries would have proved it a long time ago. THIS IS THE TRUE GOSPEL OF CHRIST! I know it. so a little bit about the island it is pretty much like the usa. the money is the same. they drive on the same side of the road but there is no speed limit or stop signs. and the music is the same. this is what leads to a lot of the homesickness. but I know of your love and I want you to know that I love you and DONT EVER forget that! thanks for all of your support and I love you.

He loves letters and would love to hear from all of you! His new address is...
 Elder Nathanial Woodruff
ST Maarten
#3 Queen Palm Dr
2nd floor, Cole Bay
St Marteen, N.A.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Pictures from the MTC

My name tag with the dork dot on it haha I took it off as soon as I could :)
My desk



Me and Elder Hardy at the Joseph Smith statue on campus
Our district at the temple
Our group
Saying goodbye to Elder Bailey
Me and Elder Gotipati, the Indian going to India
Our room
Wearing the tie Sierra sent
My cluttered desk but I know where everything is
The class
Our combined candy box with Elder Dye being weird
My favorite teacher Sister Knowlton (the one sitting down) she is awesome!
I actually make my bed, you would be so proud!
Our district with one of our teachers Brother Boddy
Elder Patatefa - "what you talking about Willis"
Me wearing the ugly tie. It wasn't too bad. I kinda like it.
Elder Dye being photogenic
This is the sisters when they were glaring at me! Don't make them mad.
The stadium you can see from our class
This is my companion giving another history lesson
Elder Wilson telling us he loved us always! He reminds me of Tristin.
All of our Elders in our different country shirts. We were bored so we all bought different shirts.
A random acorn landed on my shoe.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

He made it!


i made it safe. my p day is on monday so i will write as soon as i can and email you on monday. i am actually going to st. maartin. i love you and talk to you soon. you guys are great and such a support. i am excited and it will be a great experience. i love you all so so much. dont worry about me. i will get you an address so i can get letters. i love you!!

Monday, October 7, 2013

On His Way!

This morning we got a call from Elder Woodruff! They left the MTC at 2:45 this morning and their flight to Ft. Worth, TX left at 6:45. He didn't have time to call from SLC so he called while they were on their layover in Texas. He sounded great and so different! He said they had a lot of fun in the MTC and played hallway baseball a lot (mom sent a "Missionary Green Eggs and Ham" book that made for a great bat)! They were headed to Miami, FL for another layover and will then fly into Trinidad and Tobago. He will be at the mission home for a few days and then has been assigned to St. Lucia, he will leave on Wednesday. He seemed really excited/nervous and has asked for MORE LETTERS! His mission president has asked that we don't send packages because they would have to pay customs and wait in line to get them. Mom did some research and to send a 4 page letter it will cost $1.05. I will post his address in St. Lucia just as soon as we get it. He sent home an SD Card before he left the MTC so we should be getting some pictures soon!

Friday = P Day!

We got to email back and forth with Nate on Friday (the 4th). He said that he had been sick with a cold the last few days which made things hard. They got to go to the temple and he experienced doing his own laundry for the first time, it was busy he said. He shared this special experience with us...

"I was going to tell you about our investigator. Her name was Michelle and she didn't believe in Christ or the bible. So we met with her the first day and we had such a spiritual lesson on the love our Heavenly Father has for us. And then we asked her to pray but she turned us down and then we asked her to read the Book of Mormon and she agreed and to pray about it by herself and she agreed to that too! Then the next lesson we taught we followed up on the reading and she only read the introduction which was sad but she did pray but didn't feel anything after she prayed so we were worried. But then she started talking to us and we learned that she felt really stressed and felt the weight of the world on her shoulders so we talked to and gave her some scriptures that taught about Christ's atonement and she started to bawl. So we invited her to pray and she turned us down but we kept teaching and than by the end we were all 5 crying because the spirit was so strong and I got the impression to ask her to pray again and she accepted and gave the most humble prayer ever! So we all started crying more. But it was so amazing. Then the worst part was we had to tell her we were getting transferred and we only got to see her the 2 times. I really got to know her and feel a love for her that I know God has for her and for all of us."

They met in different rooms to watch conference and there is 7 elders and 3 sisters who will be going to the West Indies with him, plus some french and dutch speakers he said.

Homesick

His first few days at the MTC was hard. He said he was really homesick which is only reasonable considering he has never been away from home. 

September 30, 2013
"Thank you so much for the package! You really don't need to send packages, I don't eat the candy! Haha and no one else really does because we are too busy. So it's been rough here but letters really help. If I could get letters I would want them more than anything. I do miss home and it's been a hard transition for me but I know that if I endure to the end that I and the whole family will be blessed. I have spent a lot of time thinking and praying that things will get easier and that I will be able to understand what to do and why I am really here. Converting myself fully is my first job I have to do. I am trying to put my full trust in the Lord and have faith in him. Then I know I can help others. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon."

That is never an easy thing to hear. However, the next few letters that my mom received he seemed to be doing much better. He said that the saying "you just have to make it to Sunday" is so true. He said he had many spiritual experiences that day and that he felt a lot better.

MTC Drop-Off

On Wednesday, September 25, 2013, Elder Woodruff entered the Provo Missionary Training Center. It was a good day spent as a family, but also one of the hardest things we have had to do. We began the day with hot rolls and gravy from the Pie Dump and left Tremonton around 9:30. We arrived in Provo and went to lunch at Nate's favorite place: Costa Vida. We then went to the temple and walked the temple grounds, took lots of pictures, and said our final goodbyes. His drop-off time was at 1:30. I (Kelsey) have never seen so many missionaries before as we drove down the long line of drop-off spots. We pulled over to the side and in popped Nate's host to whisk him away. He opened my mom's door and let my parents get out to say one last goodbye. It was a tender moment watching him walk away, but we all knew that he would be in the best of hands. 











Elder Woodruff Takes on the West Indies

This blog is meant to be a journal of all Elder Woodruff's mission experiences to share with the family while he is away. He has asked for lots of letters so I will update his address on the sidebar as often as I get a new one. He would love to hear from EVERYONE!