Week 38 (Lone Pine)

The exciting missionary news this week is that Elders Wood & Wright ran out of people on their previously contacted list, so did some tracting (knocking door to door) to try to find some new folks. And one door was opened by their new friend Isaiah, who had been looking for God in his life. They were able to teach a quick pop-up lesson, and they have an appointment to meet with him again. It sounds like he is 16 or 17 years old, and they're excited to have met him!

In other missionary work, they spent some time doing service. In addition to the food bank they normally volunteer at, they helped a member or friend of their local branch (I'm not sure which he was) consolidate some storage units, so now instead of paying for two each month, he only has to pay for one.

I didn't hear much else by way of news for this week. Elder Wright celebrated a birthday, which is always fun! And for P-Day today it sounded like they were keeping things pretty low-key and hanging out at their apartment, since the other elders in their district had other plans for the day.

Some of the many bikes in the storage unit they filled up

Elder Wright with a birthday package

A box of "R&D" cereal they were given by the food bank. He says they haven't tried it yet :-)

Bird photo. I really like the background in this one.

One more bird photo

Week 37 (Lone Pine)

Another week in Lone Pine! The missionaries continue to work hard there. They managed to find someone new to give what they call a "pop-up" lesson this week. Other than that, their current friends and families they're teaching are a little slow to progress and difficult to schedule appointments with. But they keep moving forward as best they can.

Elders Wood and Wright also enjoy spending time with the members of the Lone Pine branch. They visit them regularly, both those like CJ that are new members, and those that have been around a longer time. It sounds like they enjoy a meal with branch members one or two times a week, which they much appreciate. This Sunday was Fathers' Day, so after their regular meetings, the branch enjoyed snacks together to celebrate.

A fun occurrence today was coming across a shave ice stand that some local kids were running. He said they looked to be about 6 and 10 years old, and were very cute. So of course the elders had to each get a shave ice. Especially since the weather has been warming up - Elder Wood is a little nervous about how warm it's going to get this summer in the Bakersfield mission, especially once he's transferred to another area of the mission (they're pretty much all warmer than Lone Pine is).

A district photo. Elder Purcell, Elder Wright, Elder & Sister Davis, Elder Wood, and Elder Wolfley

A double rainbow. He said there was actually a third one, but the camera didn't capture it.

Bird photo: A robin

Another bird photo: He was proud of this one, and thinks it's a red-tailed hawk.

Week 36 (Lone Pine)

Their friend CJ was able to be baptized this week! Elder Wood was pretty excited to share this news with us today - she's had various health challenges recently and longer-term, so he was glad that everything worked out for them to go ahead with her baptism on Saturday. It sounds like it was a pretty well-attended affair; in addition to Elder Wood and his companion, several other missionaries were able to be there, including the ones who had first worked with her more than a year ago. Usually a newly baptized member of the church would be confirmed and receive the Holy Ghost the following day at church, but she was able to be confirmed that day so the visiting missionary could do the confirmation. It sounds like it was a very special day all the way around.

The other exciting (or maybe horrifying) news of the week was that he found a scorpion in his bed. The first I knew about it were the pictures he uploaded, but when we talked I found it he thinks it actually crawled over his hand the night before (they spotted it in the morning). It creeps me out just thinking about it. I enjoyed the video where his companion filmed them getting rid of it. He'd heard you could grab it by the tail to avoid being stung but wasn't totally sure he'd be able to get it right. So, he was resourceful and got out a pair of chopsticks he had, and used those to grab it (thankfully solidly), walk it to the door, and throw it far away outside. Hopefully not an event they'll have to repeat!

The rest of the week sounds like it was, at least by comparison, pretty boring. Meetings with members and friends, meetings cancelled, a good amount of driving. For PDay today they drove up to Bishop for some physical activities/games and lunch. Overall another good week in the Bakersfield Mission!

Elder Wright and Elder Wood with CJ on her baptism day

The entire Ridgecrest Zone

The scary scorpion (on the blanket on his bed)

Bird photo: A bird in a field

One more bird photo

Week 35 (Lone Pine)

Mission life continues onward without too much major change. The mission had transfers a week or so ago, but no updates for Lone Pine - Elder Wood and Elder Wright are both staying there for the next 6 weeks. They didn't even have to drive to Bakersfield to switch things up, since nobody is moving.

Last week they had a combined Zone Conference with the Ridgefield zone (his zone) as well as the nearby Lancaster and Lancaster East zones. The mission president kindly took pictures and shared them with parents, which is always much appreciated.

Their friend, CJ, is planning to get baptized, which is exciting news! She is scheduled for baptism this coming Saturday, but unfortunately had some setbacks with her health last weekend and had to go to the ER. Hopefully that will be a minor blip and she'll recover in time for the baptism to happen as scheduled!

Elder Wood reports that he is well and happy. They are going golfing again for their P-Day activity this week. If we're lucky we'll get to see some pictures next week.

Zone Conference. Elder Wood is at the far right, 2nd row.

A rainbow seen while they were out and about.

A neat-looking cloud.

Bird photo: This is a pretty red bird spotted near a feeder.

One more bird seen in a leafy treetop.