Monday Message: May 18, 2015

Wow all i can say once again is that i am glad that this week has come to an end! I dont know what caused it to be but this week was rough and long for me! and it was even a short week because we emailed last tuesday! 

I am doing and feeling much better! And i am still trying my best to eat good foods! but as a missionary we all know that is a hard thing to do! then add the fact i am in Guyana and there isnt much here that i can get let alone know how to cook it. All i know is rice and chicken and i am so sick of eating that. i think i could go my whole life never eating rice again hah!

but ya other than that the week was super slow and not much happening but we do plan to have a baptism this weekend of a young boy named christopher! i will let you all know about it next week! i love you and have a great week!

love 

Elder Woodruff

Monday Message: May 12, 2015

Well you can say that this week has been pretty interesting on my side of things here in Guyana! For those of you who dont know by now i got sick on sunday but you dont need to worry anymore it was just a bug i guess and the habits of missionaries only eating once a day isnt very good! it cause my stomache to react in the way that made the pain that i was in! but they gave me some Antibiotics and said to watch and things should get better!

We also had a fun run in with a snake in our apartment the other night. we had come home to grab something and i opened the door and to my surprize it was there but it couldnt really get any grip on our floor so it was really slow! i took a video of me chopping it with a knife. but boy that really gets your blood pumping fast haha!

Other than that it was a pretty long but good week and i loved the skype call that i got to have with the family even though the connection wasnt the best but we had a good talk and laugh and i love my family so much. i will see them and you all in 4 and 1/2 months and that is coming soon! I LOVE YOU!! have a great week! be safe

Love

Elder Woodruff

Monday Message: May 4, 2015

Wow can you believe that mothers day is already here? This is the last skype that i will have here and i get to see you all in person again! i was just thinking and i reallized something ( now im not trunky but this is what i found out!) i have 20 weeks left and about 145 or so days left! wow that is so crazy! 

 

 Other than that on a more missionary note we had a slower week! I dont know what it is here i think the heat but it makes me so sick. i get a fever and runny nose so bad that i sneeze and my eyes cloud over and its only when i am in the sun! but i have to push through i found out that theraflu really helps so i carry that with my around when i go! 

The thing for this week that proves that i am in Guyana is that our washing machine broke about a week and a half ago so to do the laundry we have turned to doing little by little each day by hand an brush! and can you believe that my whites are still white haha! i even did some of my own sewing by hand this week and it looks good and sturdy! I guess i did learn from all that time i sat at Moms feet and watched her sew!!!

  This week we also started to teach this wonderful young family. Ravi & Nadira who have a little 2 year old that turns 3 on the 23rd of july! i found ellerie a boyfriend haha jk:) but they are so sweet and really accepting they are working on getting married so that they can be baptized on the 23 of May! we hope to help them with that Nadira finally got all of her papers so they should be able to do it now! 

We also have a few more on their way toward baptism and they are looking to be really promising i just hope that we will be able to help them!

 I also found out this week that Lyn Tyson the lady i was teaching in Barbados was baptized this last saturday and i was so happy for her! they say she is doing great and really grasping the gospel and all that she needs to do! wow miracles are happening here in the west indies and i am so greatful that i get to be apart of it! 

I hope that you have a wonderful week and i will talk to you next week im not sure if it will be monday yet because it is election day in guyana and i heard it is pretty crazy so we will see. i will let you know throughout the week! I love you!

Love 

Elder Woodruff

Monday Message: April 27, 2015

He sounded great today! It's crazy that we only have 5 months left until he will be home!

Wow this has snuck up on me really fast. But it is great. We had a really good week this week in the fact that we had the Baptisms of both Adiol and K-zia Shepard. And i was able to do the ordinance for both of them. We did K-Zia's on Wednesday and boy was that an adventure! i was in the water for 30minutes because she was afraid to go under and that water was so cold! Then on saturday was her older sisters turn and she went a lot faster which was good and i am happy to see the step they have taken!

This week also has been funny to see how we were able to make it by washing clothes down the road by a members house because another missionary came over and plugged the washing machine into the 240 Volts and blew that motor to haha! wow missionary life for us! That is just what happens over the river haha!

The other thing for the week was that i had Flat Mallori with me to take around and play to see life in Guyana and i had a fun time taking her out with me! We sure went on an adventure.She has been in La Grange Guyana for the last week or so and she spent time with me. We did a lot of missionary work and tons of walking i think her shoes are worn like mine!  but she also got to spend time playing with the other kids here! She also witnessed the baptism of a 9 year old girl and then took cover from the pouring rain.! She met a Friend named Serena Beharry and traveled through the country and down dirt roads, Crossing many bridges and trenches( some clean and some dirty). then she saw the goats in our back yard! all that work tired her out so she had to take a break and rest in the hammock. and boy you should see the size of the insects she had to deal with here! some of them even bigger than the turtles she saw. She also met the shepards and played some hop scotch with them and met their turtle. She even became true guyanese and fell into a trench luckily this one was full of grass so she stayed dry! and the last stop for her was taking a boat over the river to get to georgetown because the bridge takes to long! that was a full adventure and i had a lot of fun with her!

The last thing i want to talk about today is a couple of weeks back i talked about cleaning a ladies garden spot and left it at that but i should tell you the result! So we Got it all cleaned and then the next time she went back she saw it. But when she asked if it was us we said no, but then she was worried that someone took the ground from her and some of the missionaries accidentally took out some of her plants and she was sad! i felt so bad and we eventually told her it was us and appologized for the plants and ask if we could repay her and her face just lit up and she was so happy we did that for her she didnt even care about the plants anymore she just thanked us so much and we did so much for her and she said she loved us forever for that! it made me so happy the feeling i got for doing it i have a huge testimony of service now i love it!!

I hope that you have a great week as well. I cant wait for next week! I love you!

Love

Elder Woodruff

Monday Message: April 20, 2015

He said he was doing good today except he is sick again. Said he had a runny nose so I  told him to shove some toilet paper up there and his response was that he needed a tampon to get it stopped! Funny kid! This Saturday will mark 19 months down with only 5 to go! He will be home before we know it!

Well this week has both been fast and slow. The first half went so fast i didnt even realize it but the last part drug on. I got a small cold that hit me last night and then today it is still there! but other than that we had a great week!

So this week has been good in teaching two of our investigators their names are Abiola and Kazia. they are from a partmember family named the Shepards and they are doing great. They are preparing themselves to be baptized this week on wednesday the 22nd. I am so happy and excited to see them make this step. Elder Pollard and I have been working on our unity in teaching as well and we even had Elder Christensen with us this week and we have made a commitment to use at least 1 scripture each in the lessons that we teach. It truly helps in the lessons and the way that the investigator feels and gets things out of the lesson!

So my funny daryl moment for the week happened on wednesday. So the current here is a little different some times the wall plugs are 120 volts and sometimes they are 240 volts. And good old me coming from barbados where everything is 120 didnt think to check and we had just bought a new fan that cost us $10,500. for you in us that is about 55 dollars. and i got home and was so happy to finally have a new fan plugged it into the wall. it started so fast and me and elder pollard were confused and it ran for about five minutes and shut off. we thought it was jsut a black out because that happens often here. but then we smelt something burnignb and low and behold it was the bran new fan! it had burnt up. i guess it couldnt handle the double power haha. so we ended up getting a 240 volt fan that only cost $6000 this time.

So that was basically my week. i hope you had a great week! i love you! have a good week. ps i hit 19 months this saturday! wow!

Love

Elder Woodruff!

Monday Message: April 13, 2015

So I have totally been slacking on this blog. I wanted it to be more than just copying and pasting his emails so this is my attempt to do better!

While talking back and forth yesterday I asked about his new companion,  Elder Pollard. He said they get along fine. They tend to keep to themselves and stay out of the way of each other which is probably a nice change from the last companion. He said he was able to go and visit the Kirton's for a little bit which he loved because he said it's the closest thing to family there. I'm glad they take such good care of him and love him like we do! I haven't taken any pictures off Dropbox yet but will do that later this week. Until then here is the email.

Wow well this week has been such a busy one. I arrived in guyana on wednesday at around 3 pm. then went to the office and then to my area which is over the river. You would think that it would be a city but it reminds me a lot of New Amsterdam. It is spread out pretty far but it is a nice area. I love it already and i love the people. I have got to meet a few of them and the Branch is a decent size! We have a huge chapel though. i honestly think it is bigger than the one back at home! i will get a picture and show you! 

The thing of the week is that elder pollard actually grew up in guyana so his parents then moved to tortola. but his brother lives in georgetown. so he had a baby and his whole family got the permission of pres mehr. and came to our branch and elder pollard got to bless the baby. it was cool but also weird to know that he was able to see his family. they were really sweet and had to take a picture with me because i was the prophets relative haha.

other than that my week was normal as usual i stopped by the Kirton family to say hi today and that was the best ever. Sorry it is short this week. hope that you have a great week> i love you!

Love 

Elder Woodruff!

Monday Message: April 7, 2015

Wow can you believe it has been another transfer already, because I cant. this has really flew by and now I only have 4 of them left. I will be transferred tomorrow to Guyana back to my homeland ha. Only this time I will be in the Georgetown area in a place called La Grange. I do have to say that I have Truly Loved every minute (thick and thin) here in Barbados and I am really sad I have to leave. I will be honest I almost was crying when I found out and since them I have cried at least once ha. DONT JUDGE! I guess when I told president Mehr that I would go back at anytime he took it in to thought quickly and Im headed back!! I know I will love it there because I love Guyana so much!

  So this story that I am going to tell you next may scare you and make my momma really worry but you don't need to because I am fine. It is something that I laugh at now even though for a time I was hyped up on adrenaline!

  So on Tuesday night we were walking home on a road that we walk all the time but we were running a little bit late because of the buses. So I had started to make phone calls to the other missionaries when we heard a loud "POP POP" then elder ort asked if it was gun shots but it didn't register to me that it was so I kept walking and then another "POP POP PPPPOP POP" came and yup it was gun shots. elder ort took off running and I waited a second then all of the sudden a young man came running around the corner running for his life. You could just see it In his eyes. So then I started to run but I quickly realized that I was behind this kid running and if someone was shooting at him I didn't want to be behind him so I cut off to the right and elder ort was on the left hiding. We waited a few minutes and met back on the road and then a really suspicious man walked between us and he was definitely holding something hiding in his hands and later people described him as the shooter. we were definitely watched over. We quickly said a prayer and went home back the way it had happened. but it was fine. When it was passed over we asked what happened and the man was mad at a boy and shot him in the Foot. Can you just say I love my mission and all the fun exciting experiences I get to see!

( MOM DONT BE SCARED OK HA:) )

 Conference was by far my favorite. I truly felt like many of the talks were very personal to me and it really answered many of my prayers! Even though half of them also made me way to trunky with all this marriage talk but they still had good insights for my mission as well. I have never felt like something was so directed towards me yet! I love the prophet and all the leaders of the church. Next conference I will be at home to watch in my pj's finally haha! Cant wait.

Well that was my eventful week hope you enjoyed it with me I love it. I LOVE YOU! hope to hear from you soon and have a great and safe week!

Love

Elder Woodruff