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
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
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. :)
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. :)
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
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
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
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
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
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
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