Mid transfer Update

Well hello there again you all.

My life in Kielce his started turning into a blur. A blur of awesomeness!!! The past several weeks my companion and I have only spoken Polish to eachother. That has been difficult and trying, but has produced miracles. It has increased my language ability so much, and has somehow led to a contagious more rewarding general acception of our message. In other words, our new investigators have tripled, our baptisimal dates have tripled, our book of mormons given have quadrupled. People are starting to change their lives for the better. So however hard it may be to be obedient and keep the commandments or mission rules, I know that there are literally so many blessings and tangible miracles for alll those who are willing.

We did have exchanges this week which was cool, we got to be around other missionaries again. so that was fun. Plus we had zone conference in Katowice, which was a blast,  it is funny because like 75% of our zone is my age in the mission(7 months) or younger. Learned some good stuff, then literally sprinted about a mile to the train station back to Kielce, with Elder Mandla and Haskett, who were coming on exchange. I served with Elder Mandla the next day, he is from Australia, so it was really cool. Plus he is a stud and he is only a month in. 

Something funny I learned about missionary work this week, is how little missionaries do in relation to God. We are literally pawns in his hands. We strive to be obedient, work hard and continually refine our craft, but he is really the one doing all the work. He has led people who we would never would have found in a million years on our own straight to us, who have been searching, and longing for their whole lives, knowing that it is truly there somewhere; the amazing truths and blessings that this restoration and gospel contains!

We have 7 active members here in Kielce, 3 of which are under the age of 10. So its pretty funny when you have more progressing investigators than members, so yeah idk how its all going to turn out, but it should be exciting!
Even though there are very few of us here it is interesting because we are busier than ever and never feel alone. I've truly found the joy in loving the people here for who they are and their amazing differences :) Its come with truly investing myself into these relationships. People are amazing, increase your relationships with others because that will get your far in life. Humans are an interesting form of life. We are all different yet all the same, so complex, yet so simple. God created us, we are his children. If you don't believe that, ask him to let you know, because he will, if and only if, you are willing to listen. I testify of that he lives and directs his church today in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Life as a missionary is good. I love it. Life in general is good! Never take it for granted. 

Elder Wood

p.s. my camera is in warsaw for another three weeks but this was taken at Zone conference with some missionaries from my Awesome MTC group

The Unknown Number

Ok, Don't really know where to begin. We've been so busy all alone here in Good ole Kielce and traveling all around Poland even to Warsaw a couple times of where I left my camera so pictures will have to wait again, but here are a couple more miracles I would like to share.

1. Right after the Martyna Miracle, we thought it would be an even bigger miracle if we got back to our apartment in time. So we literally sprinted to the nearest bus stop. Hopped on. This kid looked at me funny cause I at my hands on my knees and I was laughing and gasping for air at the same time. So I explained the situation to him who we are and what we do, gave him a summary of the restoration and he said he wanted to meet up and hear our 1st lesson. But, then I realized that the bus was slowing down to our stop, so I tried to hurry and get his number, he tried to type it in, but he typed it in incorrectly and made a mistake with one of the digits and in the midst of this confusion, he just very quickly gave back my phone and I literally jumped through the doors literally as they were closing. I even had to squeeze sideways ha like something you would see in a movie! But yeah, I tried to call him to see if it worked and it did not. :( dang.
Rewinding about a week, I had gotten a mans number but I must have typed it in wrong. Pretty bummed at myself, I said a prayer and asked for forgiveness for being so terrible at Polish I cant even type in the right numbers and then I thought if God can do all things, he can help me figure out what this number really is. So I asked for help and tried a bunch of different combination of numbers. They didn't work :( Kinda bummed, I figured if he is ready to accept the gospel, we will run into him again.
Anyways, fast forward back to the bus stop. After his number didn't work, I was once again bummed. But I had another thought to ask God. So, I was like" God, I still have faith that you can do anything, even something as simple as telling me what this kids real number is, maybe the first time was a test, but I'm ready to try again. I know its possible". So I looked back down at my phone, calmly went to the sixth digit out nine. Decided to change that 2 to a 5. pushed the call button with a really good feeling and a grin on my face. And let me tell you....That ring was the best ring I had ever heard in my life!!!!!!!! He was baffled! He told me that he typed it in wrong but he didn't have time to fix it and was wondering how I found out the actual number. I explained that it was God...He was so amazed he agreed to meet. It was awesome!!!!!!
sorry I actually only have time for one. haha
Miracles are real I will never have time to explain even a tenth of them, God does direct his work today, because he Is real and closer than you think. We can communicate with him. We can recieve direct guidance from the creator of all things in all things pertaining to his will.
Moroni 7:33 "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." As his representative I testify that is literal and true.
I promise you all he is there and you can know of a surety through prayer. If you don't believe me... try. Cause He lives...

Elder Wood

Martyna Miracle

Its gonna be quick so I will jump right into it. 

On Tuesday night we were looking through the area book, we pulled out some names of a few old investigators from a few years back that we felt like we should call. There was one named Martyna that seemed really promising and stood out for some reason. but her phone number didn't work. The next day we recieved a self- referal of someone requesting the missionaries with a different phone number. Her name was Martyna. We were like no way it can't be. ( ps. almost everyone has the same name in Poland it is ver common to have the same name haha wierd). We called the number. It worked, but she didn't answer. We texted her and she said she really wanted us to come over, we asked when and where, she didn't respond, we resent the message the next day, she didn't respond. btw, everything during this day was not working out, absolutely no one would listen doors were slamming in our face one after the other. We were getting down...Elder Mulder Mentioned, something like dang," whats going on, I thought  that Martyna girl was going to be prepared and accepting". Then I was like " yeah this day sucks, but whatever lets just punch satan back in the face". He was like" yeah buddy, lets find her!" Then I said," If she is ready, then God will lead us to her". So we set off, onl knowing the street by which she lived.

We got there and it was lined with tons of big apartment buildings, we were like" heck yeah, lets roll!" so we started knocking. Probably about 60 doors slam in our face, ok probably 50, 10 of them closed it nicely. (not an exageration ha) We hit the next aprtment building thinking this is going to be the last one, we get to the top of the stairs, and knock at this door. While we are waiting we notice a picture of salt lake city in the hailway of this apartment building. We were baffled!! haha why would a picture of Salt Lake be in this ghetto apartment building in the middle of poland?! The lady answeded, she slammed the door :( A couple no answers later and a couple more slammed doors we hit the last one on the bottom and this young mother answers the dooor talks to us for a sec and invites us back in the folowling week!! That boosted our spirits enough, to say if we hurry we got time for one more before the end of the night. We go to the next building, scale the stairs knock the door, this young mother about 28 answers, warmly welcomes us in, super super happy and polite, sits us down gets us some water and food. and we are thinking, like what is happening here?! We ask her name, she says Martyna!!! We look at eachother start laughing super relieved , ha almost crying, and she was a little confused and then we explained how we were literally led right to her! and that she is ready to progress again, the spirit was soooo strong!!! We testified about how the gospel blesses familes and stuff and the spirit was so strong! she said she was going to ponder on Baptism and stuff, and we are meeting with her regularly! It was insane. We were so pumped so grateful and honored to be missionaries of God and literally led by him! Missions are awesome. If any of you are thinking about serving, do it, it will change your life for the better more than you can imagine.

Elder Wood

send pics next week gotta fly

Transfer to Kielce with Elder Mulder

Oh wow, The past week has been craaazy. We recieved transfer calls a week and a half ago and I got transferred to Kielce. It was hard to leave the members and investigators and english class homies behind, but its alright cause I'll probably go back there in the future. It is about an hour and a half from Krakow but instead of living in the second biggest city in the mission, I am now in the smallest. It was actually pretty cool because I prefer the country over the city, so when I rode the train into my new area( yeah train! we ride trains everywhere long distance, they are pretty funny and it feels wierd kinda like throwback) it just felt like home, like that small town Idaho feel, fresher air, friendlier more open people, not to mention a super fun, humble, way hardworking companion!

Elder Mulder is his name, he stands majetically at 6' 6''! He is really kind, compassionate, loving, complamentative, loves makeing bomb meals and eating healthy, and working out. So its way easy to get along with him. He is a little shy, but we cancel out in that aspect. It was interesting this week cause we noticed that he can relate with the people that are difficult for me to understand and relate with and vice versa. Haha its funny, I love this companionship. Oh, plus he has Insanity which we have really hit hard this transfer and he helps me a lot with the language, so honestly what else could I ask for, I'm very grateful. One thing that is a little annoying is He walks really fast, so sometimes I have to jog or walk really awkardly to keep up, probably from the fact that two of my steps equal one of his ;) He is also from Massachusettes and has 12 siblings!

Kielce is a two-man city, meaning that we are the only missionaries in like a 120 kilometer radius. ha. I hear it gets a little lonely, but luckily he is zone leader, so we get to travel a lot! There are only about 5 active members, but they are super solid. We found some legit investigators this week and so we are stoked for that. I played piano in church this week cause there was no pianist, it was terrible ha ;) 

Speaking of traveling, last week we got to go to warsaw for a day, that was way fun cause that evening we had a finding activity where we went to one of the main squares, set up camp and contacted people walking for a few hours. The place was beautiful and I got to talk to people from all over the World and teach them about the Plan of Happiness and The Restoration. Then we went down to Wroclaw and Legnica, to interview an investigator who was getting baptized the next day. That was amazing, Legnica is like Kielce, small old town feel. Plus I got to see Elder Furhiman!!!! He's like my brother out here. I hope I get to serve with him. Then the next day we came back to Kielce, jumped right into some lessons with new investigators. But now we are headed to Krakow and Katowice for zone training. We are so busy, especially in maintaining our area while being gone so much, But it is way fun!

Funny story: On our train to warsaw, it was cabin seating, ( like on the hogwarts express) so we decided to start at the back of the train and tract to the front. It was so scary, I dunno what we were thinking,  but we decided not to waste any time and that it would be selfish of us to withhold this amazing plan and knowledge from those people so we just did it. Ha plus what could possibly go wrong ;) Well we got about 1.5 cabooses down the train found one guy that was super intrigued was looking out the window just thinking about life when we spoke to him and he wanted a Book of Mormon so yeah. But then one of the conductors stopped us. he was was really confused and threatened to remove us from the train if we didn't go back to our cabin(he was angry, probably cause he was catholic). So we just explained the situation and said we would, and then I gave him a pass along card about the restoration, which he actually graciously accepted haha it was funny.

But all in all, a busy/hardworking life is a happy life, as long as you have your priorities stright. Never leave out prayer, prayer is vital. You can literally speak with the creator of the universe and mankind. Why would you not want to recieve his perfect wisdom and guidance. "Pray, he is there, speak, he is listening". I exhort you all. I miss you all. I love you all

Love, Starszy Wood

me and mulder in warsaw

A couple last pics from krakow

Main street of Kielce from the chapel window