Jared Wood's Missionary Blog: Week 49 (Plum Canyon)

Elder Wood and his companion had an appointment cancelled on them this week - she left a message the night before the appointment saying sorry, she'd have to cancel for the next day, because she was heading to the hospital to give birth to her baby! Seems like a pretty good excuse to me, and one of the most unusual they've had. Other than that one, they did have some lessons that actually took place this week. Their favorite was with a newly baptized member of their ward who is 8 years old. He entertained them during the lesson by showing off his Spiderman wall climb.

The elders continue to do some service and help out at the nearby ranch which has lots of animals that are trained and used for various movies and photo shoots. They do have fun while they're serving, though. See the pictures below for the lizard they found and captured (momentarily) while they were moving some cinderblocks around. Elder Wood also got to meet a bird this week (I know you'd never guess that he loves birds). This one was a trained raven who, among other things, can say "I love you".

In church news this week, they finally got to start meeting at their own chapel, which is not far away from the missionary apartment. They had been meeting elsewhere for the last couple months because it was having some work done for mold remediation (sounds fun!) I'm sure both the missionaries and the ward members are happy to be in their own building again. Elder Wood is also looking forward to their upcoming visit to the Los Angeles Temple, which is scheduled to take place this coming week.

I asked about some of their day to day details. He reports that temple trips are scheduled about once every 6 months, and they go to either Los Angeles or Fresno, depending which one they're currently serving closer to. The recently announced Bakersfield Temple has a location identified, but no groundbreaking or construction started yet. In other details, one of his errands for this Preparation Day was to go and get his watch fixed; the hour hand and minute hand have gotten out of sync. I also asked about eating habits - the four of them in the apartment all occasionally cook something and eat it together. But usually they just eat whatever they scavenge up on their own.

Finally, Elder Wood gave another talk this week, meaning I have some additional spiritual thoughts that he shared. Here's one: 'Obedience is an eternal principle, one that Christ exemplified throughout his life. As Christ Himself said in John 8:29 "And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." In all things Christ exemplified the principle of obedience, always doing the will of the Father. We, too, are expected to be obedient to the will of the Father.'