Joshua Woodruff says he looks at life differently after completing a two-year mission project in Nicaragua with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

“I see people differently now,” he explains. “We are all children of the same God. Now I see the divine potential in people. I’ve learned what people can become.”

His two-year experience came after he accepted a mission call from his church. While a senior at Bluffton High School in 2009-10 he began filling out application forms through the church and before he graduated knew that he would be going to Nicaragua.

Also during his senior year he applied and was accepted to Brigham Young University. “The university deferred my acceptance until this fall so that I would serve as a missionary,” he said.

Working toward his two years of mission service started when he was 7. “I made the decision at that time to do this,” he said. From that point on, he began saving money to support his anticipated mission work.

“I worked at Suter’s Produce and at True-Value Hardware and well over half of what I earned went to my mission fund,” he said.

His three years of Spanish in high school helped him and now, after two years in Central America, “I miss speaking Spanish,” he admits.

“Elder” Woodruff, as he was called during his mission experience, said his main focus was to invite all people to come to Christ.

He explained five focuses of his experience. These included helping people to strengthen their faith, repent, become baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and help people retain the commandments of God.

Working in tandem with another young man, called a “companion,” the two-man team worked in the Nicaraguan capital city of Managua and also in the Nicaraguan rural community. During this time, Woodruff worked with 11 different companions. Several of them were native to Central America.

“I worked with people who had a desire to be baptized. I thoroughly love those people,” he said of his  mission experience.

Woodruff’s mission term ended in August and he immediately returned to Utah and began classes at BYU. He is a business management major and his considering a career in mortuary science. He visited his parents and brother and sisters in Bluffton over the Christmas-New Year holiday. It was his first time in Bluffton since August of 2010.

While he experienced a culture shock going to Nicaragua, he also experience one when returning to the United States.

“It’s a shock dealing with American life after living in a Third World country,” he said. Another shock is the weather. “I’m still freezing,” he said, speaking of the change in climate.

On Monday he begins his second semester of classes at BYU. He joins his sister, Mary, a 2012 BHS grad, who is a freshman at BYU. She has also received a mission call through the church and in May will begin an 18-month mission serving in Carlsbad, Calif.

Woodruff is the son of Dr. David and Margie Woodruff, 1000 Columbus Grove Road, Bluffton. He attends church at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day-Saints, Lima.