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