Merry Christmas from Linhares!

We got to talk to Riley for Christmas!

Here's what we learned:

He's happy.  See his face?

He eats with the members everyday for lunch.  Mostly rice and beans.

He is known in certain circles as the guy "who can't eat all of his dessert."

(He says some of it is nasty!)

He has never walked so far for so long in his life. 

They live 30 minutes away from their area.

They aren't worried about being robbed in their area!

He and his companion live in a nice apartment--just the two of them.

They've found three cockroaches and incinerated them.

They are implementing a new 12-week training course for new missionaries.  So far so good.

He actually speaks a foreign language that other people understand!  (We assume it's Portuguese!)

The days seem to fly by.  The hard work makes him sleep well at night.

The Brazilians are so friendly and invite them in to talk all the time--

even when they are NOT interested in the gospel.

He is happy to be a missionary in Brazil!

Linhares - Week Two

Hey FAM! Well my pday has been switched to Monday, so this is the time when I’ll be emailing you.

This week has been pretty rough. Both me and my companion are new to this area, so we've spent most of our time trying to build our teaching pool. This area is huge too, so we spend a LOT of time walking, and we only are teaching a few lessons a day, which is not good. We should have a baptism this week, our investigator, Cida, should be baptized, and she went to church again, but for some reason she wants to ask her pastor if this is good for her. We tried all we could to tell her that she needs to ask Heavenly Father, and not her pastor, but she's stuck on that anyway. Our other investigator that we've been teaching regularly is being weird about baptism, he recommitted to a day, but we think he's having problems with the law of chastity and he is still drinking coffee. He says he knows that it's true though, which is really disappointing. A few of the others we are teaching are having a lot of trouble actually doing things. We  have one who just refuses to pray. Really sad and frustrating. We met with one family this week, the parents are Roberto and Rosangela, and they have two kids of baptism age. They're a really great family, and would be awesome. We've only visited them twice, but they haven't prayed about the Book of Mormon yet. They have friends in the church too, so we trying to get them to go teach with us this week. We are also trying to start using the members more, have a lot of family home evenings and have the members invite friends so that we can start teaching them. We do a LOT of walking. But I like this city. It's really clean compared to São Paulo, but our area is ridiculously huge. It takes us like 25 minutes to walk to our area from our apartment.

I don't think I have anything else about the actual work, since it's been a short week. We're looking to improve a lot.

Well, it's been really hard for me this first week--a lot of walking, which I’m not used to, haha, and I don't understand people very well, and I can only say most of the things I want to during lessons, some things I still have trouble with. And only one investigator is progressing so that is discouraging too. I hit a low point this week, but I've been reading the scriptures, which has been helping me, and I have some goals this week for me to talk and teach more, rather than my companion, who has been doing most of the teaching (mostly because he just keeps talking and I don't really get a chance to do much.) We re going to be working on that this week, but I think that was also a contributing factor to my discouragement, because I felt like I wasn't helping at all.

This week is going to be awesome. I can just feel it. I just have to use more faith. I can do this, because this is where the Lord wants me to be. I was reading in Mormon 9, and I don't remember what verse right now, but the basic message that I got out of it was that if we are really disciples of Christ, we need to preach the gospel to everyone. I really like that chapter. Ths week will be awesome.

Thanks mom and dad for everything that you've done to get me here.

Can you send those family history stories when you get a chance? I would really like to have those. I think that's the only thing that I need, and those shoes. =)

I love you all!
até proxíma semana!

Linhares - Week One

I’m in Espirito Santo! How exciting is that? I got to Vitoria around midday yesterday, and met with the president. We flew Brazil’s version of Jet Blue, and they gave us all the snacks we wanted, but only to the missionaries. haha. The mission president is really cool, but I don't know him that well, and I can't speak Portuguese very well either. We took a three hour bus ride, (me and my companion) to where I’m serving, for the life of me I can't remember the name of the town, it’s about three and a half hours north of Vitoria, and I get to email again on Monday so I’ll tell you then. But my companion's name is Elder Fischer, he’s from Manti, has been in Brazil for about a year, and was in Texas for about 6 months when he was reassigned. He basically knows Spanish too. He's a really cool guy. We got to our home really late last night, probably about 9 at night. Today was a pretty good first day, besides the fact that I hardly know what anyone is saying. If everything works out right, I should have my first baptism on Saturday! I’m so excited. I also taught my first few lessons today, even though my companion taught most of it. Oh, and me and my comp are the only elders in our house, so it's a little weird. There is one other companionship in this city. Oh and my trainer's trainer was Devin so he knows him because he was in campos when Devin was visiting I think. Anyway, we studied a lot today, and when we finally left we had lunch at a member's house. The mom had to go to work, so we ate with the son Gabriel, who is 14. He's a really cool kid. We’re going to play soccer with him on our next pday. After that he showed us around part of our area, since my companion is new here also. After that we went and tried to find the investigator that the previous companionship left. The best part of today, we met with a recent convert, named Valda, she just got baptized about a month ago, she is super excited about the church and has a ton of referrals for us. We went over there--she's the only one in the house who is a member. We taught two of her daughters today, Fernanda and...dang! I can't remember her name. haha I’m really bad with names, especially because I can understand hardly anything being said. My companion teaches most of the lesson anyway. And we were teaching her mom too. I invited them to be baptized and all three of them said yes! How awesome is that?! I have two baptism dates on my first day! We can't baptize the grandma because she lives in a different state is leaving soon. The two daughters are going to get baptized on the 1 of January, so we're going back there tomorrow. The other investigator that we were teaching today is a friend of that family, and lives there too so we were there twice today. Hopefully we get them all baptized. I’m going to be in this area for 12 weeks. This area is really great, I’m excited to be here and actually teaching people about the gospel. I felt the Spirit a lot today, which was a great counter to the worry and the anxiety that I don't know the language. I’m going to work as hard as I can here, I will talk to you on Monday. And I hear that for Christmas we will be able to Skype with you. I’m kind of excited about that too. Well I’m really excited to work here. That's all for now I guess.

Oh! And Monday we went proselyting in downtown Sao Paulo, it was really easy because there was a TON of people and none of them already had 3 copies of the Book of Mormon already like the first time we went out. It was a great experience.

I really like this city too, even though I can't remember the name. Haha I’ll tell you on Monday.

And yeah, that was Rick at the Melting Pot, he's a really cool guy, I liked working with him.

It’s nice hearing from everyone, and for Zack, Alma 26 is my favorite chapter. And I really enjoy reading Jesus the Christ. It's an  awesome book. Well I love you all! Talk to you on Monday!

Elder Woodmansee

PS.  I remember now. The city is called Linhares, and my area is all of Interlagos. It’s the part that is surrounded by lagoon water. It’s a really beautiful place, and I’ve walked more today than my entire time in the MTC. haha. Oh, and the bus ride on the 101 from Vitoria to here was really long, but oh my goodness was it beautiful! Pretty much once we left the city it was green mountains and forest. It was really awesome.

Brazil MTC - Week Six

Well, first of all, this week is going to be different because it's not all class and we have some orientation classes instead of learning the same thing over and over and over. We went proselyting yesterday and it was awesome! Me and my companion had four Book of Mormons that we were supposed to give out, and we ended up giving out all of them with time to spare! It was a neat experience. (And I’m looking forward to doing the same thing every day out in the mission field because were actually helping people come into the gospel, and not just teaching fake investigators.) Anyway, it was really hard at first, we didn't really want to talk to people and we were pretty nervous. After our first time talking to someone and talking about church with them, (which we were rejected,) it was a little easier, especially after we handed out our first book of Mormon ever! It was fun, but had at the same time. Trying to get people to stop and talk to you was kind of difficult. I was surprised that I could communicate pretty well, but it was hard to understand them sometimes. And if they're not talking about church things, (like if I hear someone just talking on the street) I have no idea what they're saying. haha I guess I’ll learn pretty quickly when I get to the field though. I can't wait to actually go out and teach people. It was interesting, the two things I heard most often while talking to people yesterday was, "I already have one," (we just went out in the neighborhood around the CTM this time,) and "the bible is hard to read" which I thought was pretty funny. I wanted to say, "Well this is way easier to read!" it seemed like the women were more willing to talk to us than the men, we haded out three to women, and one to a man. I can't imagine doing this in the states. The people here are really nice and friendly and willing to talk to us, even if they don't end up walking away with a BoM. Well that one experience was the only thing that really stuck out last week. We all came back sunburnt because we are only in the sun for like 30 minutes a day anyway. haha. Oh and I've gained like 10 pounds since I've been here, but I don't feel like I've been getting fat, and I don't think I look fatter either haha. Especially because we have to walk up more than 100 stairs every time we want to go to our room for something. Today was the last time  that we got to go to the temple. I’m really sad about that, I like going every week.

I can't wait to get out there. Just one more week!

Oh and I got your package! It was a miracle! Normally it takes about a month but it got here in 11 days! How cool  is that? I love that flag, its hanging up in my room right now.

Well I'm really excited to get out of here, I'm kinda sick of all these classes, I want to go out and talk to people and teach real people! Sounds like you're having fun at home still. Oh and no we didn't watch the Christmas devotional thing. I don't know why. Well I'm just about out of time.

I love you all! Sounds like you're having fun, and congrats Cam! Starting real life and moving on from BYU finally. haha =) sounds like a lot of fun. I miss you all, but I want to be here right now instead. =) See ya next week!

Brazil MTC - Week Five

Can you tell that Riley is anxious to get out of the MTC and into the Vitoria mission?!

Sorry I wasn't able to email you yesterday, the internet was down so we are able to today which is great. Yesterday was a good pday, we went to the temple, as always, which was great.  I’m going to miss going to the temple every week. After the temple we went out and did our normal thing. We had a huge thunderstorm yesterday also. It rolled in and rolled out in about two hours. It was the most lightning I have ever seen, and the loudest I've ever heard. It was really cool. Yesterday for devotional we watched a fireside given by Elder Nelson at the Provo MTC. It was really good, but it was also really short so I was disappointed by that.That was pretty much all of my day yesterday. It was disappointing that I didn't get to email but that's okay because I’m doing that now.

Other notable events this week. Yes we had Thanksgiving! Kind of. It was a normal day, we didn't do anything special, but for lunch they gave us turkey, mashed potatoes, and corn and it was really good. Oh and stuffing too! It wasn't as much as it would be at home, but I’m still grateful for that taste of Thanksgiving. The next night, for a tradition that they have here at the CTM, they turned on all the Christmas lights in the courtyard. We had a big social thing, we counted down and turned on the lights, then sang Christmas hymns in Portuguese, and then had ice cream. It was pretty fun. We also had a great fireside on Sunday. I can't remember the speaker’s name, but it was one of the best we have had here. I learned a lot about the Atonement. Um, everything else this week was pretty much the same.

I’m getting a little sick of it here. haha I am SO READY TO LEAVE. Doing the same thing every single day is starting to get to me. haha. I do enjoy the amount of study time that we have though. I have a goal to learn 100 new words a day, or just a page in the back of one of the language books they gave me. It’s going well, I've been able to keep up with this goal so far. On Monday we get to go proselyting, and I’m really excited for that. Next week is finally going to be different, and that is our last week here. I really can't wait.
 
Well it sounds like you're having fun, and that I might not have anything for Christmas. haha. I leave here on the 13th. Counting down the days because I cannot wait to leave. I had to buy a watch because my other ones either broke or stopped working.

Well I think that's it. I would love to send something home for Christmas, but there isn't anything cool here to send, or that I have very much money to send it, or that it would get there in time. Maybe next Christmas. Or for birthdays or something. It Sounds like you guys are having a ton of fun. I’m still learning a lot, and I’m really wanting to leave at this point. I’m just sad that I have to leave a lot of the guys here. I've made some really good friends, I guess I’ll have to just see them when I get back. Did you do the deferment thing for BYU yet? I kind of want to go when I get back home =) I like hearing from you guys. It was really helpful that you sent the one email through mission ties also because I got it yesterday and was at least able to read it yesterday. Is Jesse not sending any emails?

Well I'm just about out of time. I love you guys, and I like hearing about what you're doing. I’m sad I missed out on Thanksgiving. I’m so ready to leave here. That's cool that Cameron is getting a job and FINALLY leaving Provo. haha. Is Zack making any progress on getting married yet? haha. Well I’m having fun, I miss you guys, but I like being here too. I just can't wait to actually get out to the mission field though. I’m counting down the days. I love you all, have a great week. I have one more pday here and then I’m outta here! I’m sick of this place. I’ll hear from you next week I guess.

Well I’m really sad that I haven't gotten anything from ANY of my friends yet. I never get any mail and it makes me sad. Maybe you can go on facebook and tell my friends to mail me or email me? Thanks mom. LOVE YA! I gotta go.

Elder Woodmansee

A photo!

We got the following email last week:

I am the son of President and Sister Clark of the MTC in Brazil.  I was just there visiting my parents and took some pictures of the missionaries and then decided to ask them for your email addresses so that I can share them with each of you. I took this picture while your sons were enjoying a brazillian meal in the MTC cafeteria.  Your sons looked happy and healthy!! Enjoy the picture!!

Don Clark Jr.
 
It is great to see Riley's face again!

Brazil MTC - Week Four

I’m doing fine, I don’t really have much to tell you this week, my days are pretty much all the same, I really just want to leave the MTC so that I can feel like I’m actually making a difference out here. I’m going to try and send some small things home for Christmas, I just don’t know if it will be there in time, or if I should because I don’t have much money to spend anyway. haha. well the only exciting thing that I know that I’m doing this week, is that we are singing in the devotional tonight, I’m singing in two songs, the first is come thou fount, with 4 other elders from my district, it sound really good! And the other is I’ll go where you want me to go, with my old companion Elder Baguley. I’m really excited for both of those because it will be good. I don’t know what else I’m doing this week, just that there is only 3 more weeks left at the MTC! It seems like it’s been forever. Just because it’s the same thing over and over and over. I look forward to Sunday all week because it’s the only day that’s different.

We just got back from the temple about two hours ago, it was good, like always. I’m glad that I have the opportunity to go to the temple every week, and I’m really sad that I won’t have a temple in my mission to go to.

The only experiences that stand out in my mind this week was reading through Joseph smiths account of the first vision in Joseph smith history, with my companion. That was a good experience. This week I am focusing on patience, becasue4 being around the same group of people pretty much 24/7 can start to get on your nerves a little bit. It’s not all that bad though. But anyway, I started off Sunday night by looking up scripture by scripture in the topical guide on patience. And this week I’ve started writing down scriptures on that copy of my patriarchal blessing that either I really like or that have to do with a part of my blessing, since that copy has all the typos still anyway.

Oh, my watch broke this week, which was really lame. Two of the links broke, so it wasn’t really worth it to find someplace that could fix it because I had that clock with a clip on it that Zack took on his mission. I’ll just buy another watch later. But I was disappointed by that. I wish I could print things out or send you pictures, because I would like to keep these quotes you send me, and I have pictures to send you. Most are just of the city or of other things in the MTC, but we're not supposed to carry our cameras around so I haven’t been able to take too many.

Well, that’s it for this week I guess. I want to be able to speak Portuguese better, but I need to know more words, but it seems like I don’t have enough time to study my scriptures, the language, and help my companion learn the language, all in the study time that I have. I wish I had more time in the day to study! haha that’s something I don’t think I would have ever said before my mission. It’s hard to talk to the Brazilian elders here because I only know the words to gospel topics and the words I need to teach the lessons, (which I think I can do pretty well). But other than that I can’t say too much. I’m really hoping that I get a Brazilian companion when I get to the mission field. and speaking of teaching, my companion isn’t getting the language to great so far, so that’s why I’m helping him during study time, but during lessons it seems like I’m talking for most of the time, which I need to work on so he can get more practice too.

I love you all! I really like hearing from you! Thanks for all the things that you've done for me mom and dad. I love you and I am so grateful for everything that you had to do to get me out here. I can’t wait to actually get out to the mission field. Stay safe! Keep up the good work siblings! And Darcy you better be on the High school team! Drew, you better be dunking this season! haha Blake! I miss you bud! I like hearing from you! =)

Well my time is up. I love you! Until next week!

Brazil MTC - Week Three Part 2

Riley's handwritten letter

 Well, I suppose you are wondering what the heck happened to me.  I have been wondering why I didn't hear from you last week. So I'm pretty sure my email is being dumb again, and that's why you haven't heard from me. Hopefully you will get the emails I will try to send today along with using this other service because I know you'll get this one. . . .

I had a great experience this week, but other than that awesome one, I'm pretty much doing the same thing every day.  And one time this week while teaching a lesson, I was really surprised at how well I was speaking in Portuguese.  It seems like I'm learning quickly, I just hate all the verb conjugating, and not having a vocabulary outside of gospel topics.  haha

This Sunday, we had an MTC mission conference, which was really, really, good, and then we also had the usual fireside, which was also good.  During the fireside, the MTC president's son spoke, and he told us to write down why we are going on a mission.  That night, me and the other companionship in our room, and my companion of course, read the Book of Mormon together, and that was awesome.  I could feel the Spirit, and during one of my turns to read a page, it seemed like the whole page was speaking straight to me, and it was similar to things in my patriarchal blessing.  It was awesome.  But that wasn't even the best part.  After we were done reading, we started writing in journals or what not, when then as I was thinking about that question of why am I here, I thought it would be great to hear why the 3 other guys are here.  It ended up being a really spiritually strong experience for all 4 of us as we explained why we're out serving missions, and giving our testimonies.  The Spirit was so strong it was awesome.  We were all in tears after, but it was a much needed spiritual experience after the frustrations of the week.

I am loving being here, even if I'm not really doing anything useful but learning yet.  I know why I'm here.  I know that there are people here waiting for me to bring them the gospel. I'm here to find them and give them that joy and happiness.  I can't wait to get out of this MTC and into the missionfield where I will actually make a difference in people's lives.

I love you family!  Hope you're doing alright without me!  :)

Love, Elder Woodmansee

PS.  Thank you mom and dad for all the many, many things you've done for me.

Brazil MTC - Week Three

Well I guess my email hasn't been working which is pretty lame. Sounds like you guys are having tons of fun! I like hearing from the brothers and sister =) well.  I'll put my email from last week at the end of this one. I'm also going to try a "dear elder" service here, since my email to mom's address isn't going very well. It was really disappointing not getting any email or being able to get them to you the past two weeks.

The Portuguese is coming better than it was last week. During this week, in one of the lessons I was really surprised at how well I was able to speak and get out what I wanted to say. It was pretty neat. I'm still not where I want to be though, and whenever someone starts talking about something other than church, it's really hard to follow because I don't know a lot of the words. but I'm getting really good at teaching the lessons though.

Dad should hurry and make up his mind, and then show me haha. And drew 'thinks' that the chevelle is going to be his. Well im still having fun here, I got frustrated a little this week because it seemed like I wasn't learning fast enough, but I got over that. In the mornings we have a long study time period, and now I'm getting a lot done during this time because I broke the time down into blocks so that I stay on task throughout the whole two and a half hours we have to ourselves in the morning. I am also picking a Christlike attribute every week to work on. This week im working on obedience, but I've been pretty good with that anyway. =) interesting that you sent me a quote thing on obedience. Im really sad that I can't print it out. I'm also sad that I can't send pictures to you yet because I have some awesome ones of the city of São Paulo. I enjoy learning this language, my instructors are both really cool. Both are returned missionaries, and both Brazilian. One is getting married at the end of this week so he won't be our instructor any more which is really sad.

Well it's been raining for like three days straight, which is awesome because the sky gets really smoggy and the rain clears it up, and makes the place look beautiful! haha
The temple today was awesome, we're about to go out and send letters, and maybe buy some things.

Well I'm having fun, I hope this gets to you, and you'll hear about a spiritual experience that I had in the letter I'm sending through this "dear elder" service in a Brazil. It's pretty cool.

Well I love you, I'll take some notes this week on things to write you so it can be longer, but it's kinda hard because I do the same thing like every day here, except Sunday, and today, which are my favorite days.

Drew- good luck on getting that car, you still don't have an eagle ;) and you better be a beast at basketball this season, play some hard defense and stuff some people right in their faces! I can still beat you though. =) I only play basketball because we're not allowed to play soccer because the Brazilians would take out our ankles and someone would get hurt. haha Good job on school, study hard so you can get into BYU

Darcy- congrats on the goal scoring, and on the all-stars. I wish I could keep playing soccer, especially here where it's the big thing. =) keep up the good schoolwork darcy, and the soccer, maybe you can play soccer for BYU! That would be awesome! I like hearing about what you're doing!

Blake- way to go on the school work buddy! Keep it up.  You're a smart little (big) dude! Keep playing that sax little brother! And you better be as big as me when I come home! I like hearing from you even if you run out of things to say ;) love you bud!

So long for today! Love all of you, make sure you email me for next week!

Thank you mom and dad for everything you have done for me. It has helped me so much. Without you, I wouldn't be here and this is where I want to, and am supposed to be. I love you.

See ya next week!

Brazil MTC - Week Two

How's it going? I'm a little disappointed that I didn't have any emails this week. Did you even get my last ones?

Well, the CTM is fun, but its pretty much the same thing every day, every week. The only days that are different are Sunday, and today.

We got to go to the temple today, like we do every pday, and that is always a great experience. I'm always grateful for that and I really look forward to that. the rest of pday is good too, although, we spend probably 2 hours on the bus going to and from the temple.

Only other point of interest for the day so far, I just saw a Ferrari driving past the CTM from my window. That was pretty cool. haha

Yesterday morning we had a special devotional, where one of the Area Seventy spoke to us. It was a really good talk, but it took forever, because he would say a line or two, and then they had to translate it into Portuguese, so that just made it take forever, but it was really good. His name was Elder Evans. It was a really great talk

Just on Sunday it was fast Sunday, and they make you fast, which I thought was funny. It was a really good Sunday though, I enjoyed the sacrament meeting and all the testimonies of the elders in my branch. The other classes were good too. I look forward to Sunday every week

Well I don't think I have done this yet, so I'll give you a rundown of my daily schedule.

I get up a 6:25, so that I don't have to wait for a shower. After I shower, we go down and have breakfast at 7, and its always some meat sandwich that isn't all that great so I mostly have fruit. After that, we go to our classroom and have study time for about 2 and a half hours, unless we have TRC, which is like practice teaching with other missionaries, or with local members. After the study time, we have gym, for about an hour, and we're not allowed to play soccer here, which is lame, but they say its because too many missionaries would get hurt because the Brazilians take it so seriously. After gym we have lab, where we get to use a program on the computer to help us learn. I don't like it that much. After that we have lunch, normally chicken and some other meat, with a side of rice and beans. I really like most of the meals. The desserts here are not that good though. haha. After lunch we have class with one teacher for 3 hours, then dinner at 4:30, then class with a different teacher until 9. And that's how it is all week except Sunday and Tuesday. I feel like I'm learning the language, but not fast enough, its hard to teach lessons in only Portuguese. I'm committed to learn it though, and I want to study harder now than I did before.

I still have 4 more weeks here after this one. I cant wait to get out of here!

I love you! Try to email me before Tuesday.  =)
Elder Woodmansee

Brazil MTC - Week One

Hey mom! well you guessed the right address, but I was supposed to email you yesterday, at about 1ish, but my account had been "locked" or something and wouldn't let me in. When they finally got it fixed they said email time was over so I couldn't send one. I had to talk to the president to get permission to email you today.

Sounds like you guys are having fun! I was surprised to hear from Drew. I don't think you should let him go to that concert or whatever ;)

It's a lot of fun here, pday was really cool. we went to the São Paulo temple, which was beautiful, and had some awesome art. I really liked being able to go there, and am looking forward to going there next week. other than the temple, we get to go out into the neighborhood and buy thins and talk to people. I cant really talk to people yet though so that's a bit scary. haha I really want to buy a jersey but the nice ones are really expensive.

It's a lot different from the Provo mtc. The food is really good, but as a whole, i'ts just a little more laid back which can either be a good or a bad thing. Only 1 person from my district came down here with me, and that was my companion, (who isn't my companion anymore). My new companion is Elder Landwehr, from Oregon. He's a pretty cool guy, but also is having some disobedience issues here which is a little hard for me. Hopefully I can help him fix that. We are getting more missionaries from Provo today, it should be like 60 more, which is a lot!

The classes are easier than in Provo, because the teachers here, although they are from Brazil, speak English, so they talk a lot in English, but start to use more and more Portuguese as our time here continues. I like this way better, because in Provo, we had to teach a "mock" investigator, kinda like role play, but she would not speak any English or pretend to understand any English. so it was really hard to teach lessons that way because we didn't know how to say anything. Here the teacher acts as an investigator, and we teach them in English, using whatever we know in Portuguese, which isn't all too much so far. I like this way better because it is teaching us how to teach first, and then converting that into Portuguese.

Pretty much all of our time here is spent in the classroom, either doing personal study, or the 6 hours we have with the 2 teachers. I like it here though.

I had a really good spiritual experience this last week. I'm pretty sure I wrote this to you but I will email it to you anyway.

Throughout the day I was becoming more and more frustrated because it seemed to me like I was the only person in my district that actually wanted to get any study done or any learning in our free time. They would all talk or sleep or something, and it was distracting from my ability to learn, and they weren't being all too obedient to the rules either. After a long day of frustration, I knelt down to pray as soon as I got into the room, I didn't change out of my clothes or anything. I knelt and started to pray and really pour my heart out to Heavenly Father. I thanked him for all of my many, many blessings, everything that I could think of. Then I really let all my frustrations and worries out to him, and asked for His help. Throughout this long period of prayer, I could really feel the spirit burning, because I was earnestly and honestly praying fervently to Heavenly Father. After what was probably an more that 30 minutes of prayer, I went to go to read the scriptures and I was prompted to instead read my patriarchal blessing. It was like an immediate answer to prayer. I had tears running down my face because I knew that Father loves me. The feeling was overwhelmingly strong. After I finished reading and studying my blessing I went back to prayer and thanked the Lord for the blessing and amazing experience that he had just given me.

Well I'm trying my hardest here to follow all the rules, and keep the spirit with me, and learn as much as I can. I really like being here, and I can't wait to go out into the mission field.

Well I love you all! Thanks for everything!
Love, Elder Woodmansee

In Brazil!

(This is from a handwritten letter dated October 19--the day Riley arrived in Brazil.)

Dear Family,

Well, I'm safe and sound down in the Sao Paulo MTC, and this place is about 100x as cool as the one in Provo.  I'm so excited and blessed to be here.  My room is up on the top floor, the 6th (well, 7th actually, but they don't count the ground floor as the first floor.)  It has an amazing view!

So, I guess I'll start from when I last talked to you.  Well, we eventually got on our plane on time, but I had to sit like 3 or 4 rows up from all the other missionaries between two Brazilians.  Scary!  Well, not really, the one was an older lady who was really nice, and spoke English well.  The other guy pretty much slept or watched the movie the whole time.  I was able to get a little bit of sleep, which was a good thing.  The food wasn't very good, but it was nice to eat some things.  Some parts of the flight were bumpy, but overall it was good.  We arrived in Sao Paulo slightly ahead of schedule, shortly before 10.  Well, the 11 or so of us elders all made it through customs or whatever, and we eventually found the people who were picking us up at the airport.  They found us, but whatever.

It was really cool seeing how different the cars here are!  They're all small, and a lot of the French and Italian cars.  Oh!  I meant to tell you, on the way into Sao Paulo airport, as we were descending, out one window, it was city and tall buildings as far as the eye can see, and out the other side, green rolling hills stretching off into the distance.  It's a really beautiful country.  I love it already!  The people are really easy going, but I don't know what they're saying yet.

We got to the MTC late, because it took forever for us to exchange our money.  (Brazil money is really cook by the way.) And we got to have lunch.  It was really good.  This MTC is a lot more laid back than the Provo one.  I like it because I can sing and listen to those hymns again.  We met with the mission pres.  He's a really nice guy.  You got the picture of us with him already.  [We didn't get a picture yet!] Well, we got most the the time today to ourselves, but there's supposed to be 70 more missionaries coming from the Provo MTC next week which is pretty cool.  The only other notable thing we did, was walk around the block that the MTC is.  Which is really cool because on Pdays, we can walk around the neighborhood and talk to the people here and buy things if we need to.  I really can't wait for that too!  We also get to go to the temple on Pdays.  That will be awesome!  And I can email you guys for the first time too.  Pday will be either Tuesday or Wednesday.  FYI, the time here is two hours ahead of New York time.

Well, I love you!  It's awesome here!  I can't wait to learn the language better so I can get out and do the work here!

Love, Elder Woodmansee

PS.  Make sure you write the address EXACTLY the way I told you.

PPS.  There's old VW busses everywhere and old bugs too.  It's funny.  :)

October 17, 2011

(This is the handwritten letter Riley sent the day before leaving for Brazil.)

Dear Family,

Well, me and my companion, Elder Baguley are just getting ready for the day tomorrow.  We have to be at the travel office at 5 in the morning.  Our flight to New York (I have no idea why they're sending us there first.) leaves at 8:31am.  Once we get to New York JFK airport, we have a 7 hour layover until our flight to Brazil leaves at 10:30 at night, and we will arrive in Sao Paulo at 10:30 the next morning.  So I will spend all day tomorrow traveling.  By the way, I haven't gotten those shoes or anything else today besides that first letter, so I don't know what will happen with anything else you sent. If you're sending things to Brazil, I've heard that if you have a picture of Jesus on whatever it is, people won't mess with it.  Also, I heard to send shoes one at a time, so people won't take them.

So me and my companion are taking an unofficial P-day today to get ready.  I've really liked it here though.  The elders in my district (the guys in the same class as me) are all really cool, and we get along together really well.  Portuguese still isn't coming very quickly, which is scary, because Mitch says that at the Brazil MTC that just about everyone there is native Brazilians.  I guess immersion is a great way to learn.

Notable events since the last time I wrote:
     I talked to Mitch on Saturday. (?)  It's hard to keep track of the days in the MTC.  It was really nice to see him.  He gave me some encouraging words and that was really nice of him.
     I ran into Troy Monson yesterday [a boy from the Vista CA stake] during our 'Temple Walk' time.  How cool is that?!  He's going to serve in Japan, although I forget which mission.  We took pictures together and I will send some as soon as I can.  I think he said it was his 9th week here or something like that.

Well I think that's all for Notable Events.  I'm having fun here learning and feeliing the Spirit.  I'm pretty nervous about being in Brazil already!

Well, I'm doing well, and I really like it here.

I love you all.
Elder Woodmansee

First Letter! October 13, 2011

(This is the first letter Riley sent from the MTC.  It is a handwritten letter that I'm transcribing!)

Dear Family!
Well, this is my first letter home, and I have already talked to Mom on the phone! Well, it's almost 11am and the day has been pretty eventful.  My companion, Elder Baguley and I, had different schedules! So we were very confused as to which we should be following.  So we went to the scheduling office and it turns out, Elder Baguley was switched to be my companion because both of our visas have come through, and we will be eaving on Tuesday!  How exciting!  Well, I've enjoyed finding little notes throughout my things, and I'm sure there is a lot I haven't found yet.  My companion, Elder Baguley (prounounced Bag-lee) is pretty cool.  He's from Idaho, come place called Fruitland.  And he plays the uke also!  How cool is that?!  Well, I'm glad I brought the things I did.

Sorry, I'm kinda all over the place in this letter.  Well yesterday, I was a little intimidated because when I walked into the classroom, the teacher would pretty much only spoke Portuguese.  Wow.  And now I only have 5 days to learn as much of it as I can [for] when I go to Sao Paulo!  I'm so excited to go down there already!

Well, I got distrcted because I had to change for gym.  Soccer time!  Hopefully this will get to you soon.  You'll probably need to wait [to write] until I'm in Brazil.

Well.  Love you all!

I'm so excited!

Love, Elder Woodmansee