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.