elder robert s wood

We had the most wonderful weekend with this most amazing man.

He told us many, many stories about leaders of the church and leaders of the government. Even one day later, it is hard for me to even try and sort through them all in my mind. I loved the story about Elder Scott. He said that the apostles wish he was married because he works so very hard. But, for some reason, in my book, he gets extra credit because he did not remarry. Anyway, he told us that when Elder Scott went to Brazil, I think it was, after being on the road for a few days, they were going to a new city. At 4.00 when he asked what the plans were for the evening they said they would be arriving at there destination at 6.30 so they hadn't made any plans thinking that an early night would be good because of the demands of the past few days as well as the demands upcoming. He said that was a waste of time. He asked them to call the stake president and schedule a meeting for that evening at 7.00. When they arrived at the chapel three hours later, there were over 1000 people there. After the meeting he stayed and shook the hand of every single person that wanted to greet him.

Having said all that about Elder Scott, I noticed that in spite of a very serious injury to his foot, Elder Wood made himself extraordinarily accessible to the members after our meetings.

I enjoyed the cute story he told me about Elder Packer who has a flock of ducks in his backyard that obediently go to the other side of the lake when he is conducting meetings down by his lake.

Elder Wood has four daughter just like we do. When he was meeting with some Soviet diplomats in the 80's, his daughter went and put some Russian Book of Mormons in the trunk of his car, just in case. He ended up giving one of the Book of Mormons to one of the diplomats and ultimately he and his whole family joined the church. It made me think about how often our own girls have helped us in our callings and responsibilites.

When he was called to the 2nd quorum of 70, he actually thought that he was maybe going to be called to something else. At the end of his initial interview, he was asked how his French was? He had served a French speaking mission, but had used it and kept it up and he responded that it was good. At the end of a telephone interview with President Hinckley, he was asked again, about his French and he gave the same response. Finally, he and his wife were summoned to SLC to meet with Elder Packer. They arrived early and his wife asked him to buy her some tapes about learning French at the Deseret Book store, which he did.

When they walked into the interview, before they even sat down, Elder Packer asked him how his French was and as he was about to answer, Elder Packer said, "Not that it matters, because we are sending you to Brazil." Needless to say, after the meeting they walked back across the street and exchanged the French tapes for Portuguese ones.

He told us that he would not be released this conference. Even though he is now 70 and even though he has served for 9 years in a calling that normally lasts 6 years. I am grateful for that!