A few new pictures added in March 2009 are here.
A few new pictures added in January 2009 are here.
The first set of mission pictures.
His address for packages is:
Rui Batista Pereira
165 Jardim Caxingui
Sao Paulo SP 05517-080
hey fam, well conference was really good this week we had to listen in port because they didnt have it in english where we were at but that was a good experance. but we did get to listen to the priesthood session in english because we went to another church thats here pretty close to us. so this week we have been getting use to our new house we moved out last week and put all of our stuff in our new house which has been really nice our new house is like right in the middle of our area so it makes things alot easier. but its true time is flying by really fast elder sorensen and i are trying to plan our days as good as possible so we dont wast time its been a lot of fun with him weve been working really well together but i have a feeling that pres cooley is going to send me out to the middle of no where for the last transfer and a half becasue elder sorensen goes home on the 2nd of dec and i go home on the 21 so it would be in the middle of transfer and they would have to do a emergence transfer so we´ll see i would like to stay but... ill talk to pres this week at interviews and we can figure out whats going to happen. but ya pretty fun stuff with the horse and everything i hope that all works out and you guys can find the right horse. i didnt know horses were so expensive haha thats a lot of money. well love you guys thanks for everything talk to ya next week elder woodward
hey fam, its been a great week e sorenson and i are doing really good together this past year of my mission has been really nice because all of my companions have been really responsable and have had the same time as me of a little more so teaching is so fun because at any moment we can change in the middle of the lesson and we´ll be able to understand what eachother are thinking and our lessons turn out really spiritual. like ive already told you were working a ton with members right now more than ever its going amazing were teaching them how they can be member missionaries were going to give a training after conference weekend in our ward to help out a little the members understand there roll as members of the church so that should go really good. the baptism went really good last week it went through with out any problems and there were a lot of non members there so that was great. this week we also had zone conference which was one of the better ones ive had Pres Cooley has always been a laid back kind of guy but he laid down the law and burned a few elders which was really nice to see Pres Cooley is turning this mission into his mission because im the last group of elders that also had pres Bertasso so hes setting the things up the way he wants it without the older elders thinking that hes doing something wrong so this last conference was really good. e sorenson and i were both in the office together so pres Cooley has a lot of trust in us so of course he puts a bunch of lets say problem elders in our zone but its been really good weve been able to creat good relationships with the elders and gain there trust so we have not had any problems. And sounds like on the 24th of oct Elder Scott is coming to our mission :) so im really excited for that. and not to mention conference this week its going to be awesome im super excited. but ya that was our week this week. i havent recived the package yet i should maybe get it next week at interviews. speaking of marrage haha have you got that list of girls :) i need a list of ten haha just playin love you guys thanks for everything have a great conference week end. we get to here from the Prophet this week!!! :) your son Elder Jacob Jack Woodward
hey fam, ya sounds like taft, honey and aj are home now thats a sad thought because that means im next and like ive already said im not ready to come home yet i still have a lot of work to do. yesterday at zone leader conference i had a good long talk with Pres Cooley we talked about when i was going home because we had not decided a date and after we talked about school and plans he tought it would be best for me and the mission if i came home on the 21st of dec which is 20 days before my normal go home date i told him that i didnt want to go home and go to school that i wanted to stay until the end but i also told him that i know its something really important because if i didnt go home before i would have way to much time to do nothing. so we talked a little more and decided. im coming home on the 21st of dec along with a few other elders and a sister that have the same problem with school so i guess you can mark that day ill let you know if anything changes. but ya enough talking about that the work is going forward were having a baptism this weekend :) and we have two more really good dates for the 17 of oct one of them being Cida who ive told you a little about shes Carlos and Leonardos mom that has the smoking problem she has an answer about everything knows that all of it is true theres just one thing thats missing and were working as hard as we can to find out but i dont think were going to because she just needs to shape up and follow her feelings but its marked for the 17th of oct and we have a ton others that were helping that are progressing like crazy. remember last week i told you that we were working with the members so that they would invite there friends to go to church or do a family night well its working like crazy we this week weve already done two and we have three more marked for the rest of the week and there all bringing new friends to hear its working so good and there all getting excited and they invite eachother so theres always a bunch of members who can talk and make friends with the people that are non members. so ya its worked like you cant believe everyone in the ward is now asking us when were going to ask them to do a family night in there house so now we just tell them as soon as you invite someone to get to know us were there and its working ha. so ya things again could not be going better here i just hope that Pres will leave me here till the end. but ya sounds like your still really busy mom thats good your doing things that you like. but then again i couldnt see you doing something you didnt like. tell Bishop hi and that i love him and thanks for all the work hes doing for our family and the ward. working close here with the bishop i´ve gained a greater appreciation for all they do. if you see any of the boys tell them that i love them and tell them im the lucky one thats still eating the wonderful food of brasil haha :) But im not needing anything just socks haha mine are all about gone but i should make it to the end with them haha but really im not in the need of anything everythings fine here. love ya guys Elder woodward
hey fam, this past week has been a success we had a activity last sat that went really good we ended up having a lot of invesigators there two of with our recem converts brought to church so that was cool. this past week we were thinking about what we can do do use the members better to get refferences and what were doing is just teaching the 1st lesson and baring lots of testimony which is amazing the members feel the spirit really stong and when we get done we end up doing practices with the members and pretend that were there friends and they have to invite us to church or to a family night. so what they do is try and it almost always is horrible haha but we help them and do practices with them and show a few ways on how they can do it and then the practice again and build there confidence. this last sunday we did this and the member got so excited that shes like lets go invite my neighbor right now to a family night haha so were like alright lets go. the member did a great invite and the person excepted and like that we got a great refference ha it was pretty cool and just by doing this for a few days we marked three family nights for this week with all new investigators. something really easy but something a lot better than just leaving any message with them and asking if they know anyone we can teach. today we went to the temple with andré who got baptized two weeks ago and took some pictures and went to the temple store so he could buy some church stuff that he was wanting but his family is doing really good they were all baptized these past 4 months and there way strong in the church and bringing friends into the church as well. a family of gold. they have two daughter amanda and karina who are 14 and 15 and i was talking to the mom who was asking me about exchange student programs and how they worked because there wanting to see if they could send karina thats 15 to do it in utah with a member family. and me being the loving person i am said that my mother would love to have her at our house because my moms missing all the people that use to always be around but they all got married and now shes feeling alone and that she even bought another dog to have more company haha but really i told them i would see what you guys would think. shes a really special girl that is around the same age as katie. i guess you could ask katie if she would want a sister for a school year. it would probably be next school year in Set. but this would be something that would help her behond anything she could ever do here she would be able to get any kind of job here that she wanted it would be a huge blessing. but i wanted to pass it by you guys and see what you thought. it would probably be for a school year, so ya think about it and tell me what ya think. but ya love you guys thanks for everything you do for me :) talk to ya soon . your son Elder Woodward
hey Fam, The Lords hand is in everything, one of the hardest questions that i have came across is why do bad things happen to good people. but like mom said about katie growth! everything we go through being good or bad makes us realize lots of things about what we really care about and tests or faith so that when we are on the ground feeling all alone feeling that we just cant go on it makes it possible that the Lord can reach down and pick us up again and lift us to a new higher level. if we never felt these sad feelings how could we ever know what happiness is? i am also so thankfull for the great plan of happiness its perfect. i remember how hard it was when we put brody down and i cant even begin to think how hard this was for everyone at home. i love ya guys . My new comp is E Sorensen we were with eachother for three months in the office and became really good friends and now were going to work together so were really excited about that it should go really good. the baptisms were amazing this week ones that ill never forget. also e maglebys parents were here and that made it really special his farewell was really emotional everyone cryed the testimony meeting was really spiritual. this week Elder Sorensen and i were invited to go to the church Gods assembly which is like the big screamer chucrh here in brasil so we´ll see how that goes this week :) but ya i love you guys i hope that things can get better there at home love you all. ps the package takes like two weeks i think. elder woodward
hey fam, well another great week e magleby is excited to see his fam this week his parents get here on sat but were working harder than ever e magleby is getting really tired but me being such a nice guy ha im running him to death ha this week weve been working like crazy but its been good weve found a lot of good new people so lets see if they progress. but the two baptisms are looking good for this week there having there interviews tommorrow. but the temp here as sure moved last week its was cold and this week its been way way hot i think the cold weather has ended here and now its just going to get hot again :( but sounds like everyones doing great there at home dads working hard katies going to school dan and mike to. so what are you up to mom are ya just taking care of all the stuff at home. so ya the last i heard mike and taft get home on the 21 of set so youll have to keep your ears open and give them a big hug for me when you see them. but things are great here i couldnt be more happy i love the mission life its the best but the more in love i fall with mission work the faster the time goes and now its down to 4 months :( but its still lots of time to do lots of things so im excited. im pretty sure i know who my next comp is going to be and if its who i think it is these last months should be really good we ll work great together. but that would be reallynice to see derek if that would work out. but i forgot what does derek do. whos he working for . i would put question marks but my keyboard is broken so i cant ha. but ya i dont remember what derek does. well fam ive got to go but thanks for the email ill talk to ya guys next week. love Elder Woodward
hey fam, hey guys thanks for the money i was worried that i wouldnt get it in time because today we were going to the temple and i didnt know when i would be there the next time. so i think dad got to talk to elder swan he was my last comp i told him to tell mom i learned how to wash cloths haha i thought that would make her laugh. but ya this week was amazing we had three baptisms which went great the water was freezing and i didnt help that it was raining and cold outside as well but they were all baptized and this week there going to get confirmed. but Carol is doing way good she said the baptism was exactly how it was in her dream, she told us yesterday that shes happier than shes ever been in her life. and theres an returned missionary thats been helping her a lot in our ward that told us last week that they might get together :) so that makes us really happy she has some really good friends in the ward. and weve got some great people marked for the 5th of set like i told you guys but there doing great and there really excited about baptism. so ya i couldnt be happier here right now the Lord is really blessing us this area is amazing for sure my best area on the mission i just hope i finish up here and the way things are looking i should finish up here. did school start up for katie this past week? how is she liking that? shes in 9th grade right? i forgot is she still doing the internet stuff or is she going to school now? but ya things are all good here and thanks again for the money to buy the scriptures and stuff there really going to like them. love ya guys talk to ya soon
hey fam, tell Grandma and Grandpa that i love them and miss them. and happy B day to parker as well and happy anniversary to Dad and you on the 23rd if im not mistaken. so this week has been amazing its been really good this sunday were baptizing three people one being Carol who ive been telling you guys about this week we had a really spiritual lesson with her shes been through alot to get baptized her extended family is completly against the church and is telling there family all kinds of horrible things about the church and her boyfriend thats shes been with for three and a half years broke up with her and said if she gets baptized that theres going to be nothing left with them. so she was really sad this week but we had a really spiritual lesson with her and helped her realize what she was doing was right and by the time we were done she was like. there is nothing more i want than to get baptized and get married to a return missonary and have a family in the church so that my kids can be missionaries as well and change the lifes of others lifes like you have changed ours. it was a really special lesson. but there is still one more thing that is going to get in the way of baptism still and thats here ear rings that she needs to take out but we talked about it and tommorrow shes going to give me her extra ear rings and nose ring as she goes into her interview. i love this family they are really so special to me ive never felt the same with anyother family like ive felt with this family.after Carols baptism were going to start working with there mom really hard shes the only one left so thats going to be my goal is to get this whole family baptized before i go home. and the other two that are getting baptized and two elects that did everything on there own the kind of investagator that all you had to do was teach them and they except everything and already have good friends in the church and have been wanting to be baptized since the beginning so ya big blessings from the lord this transfer and in two weeks were going to have two more baptisms of two parents that are going to complete the family. so ya were really excited here ha couldnt be happier. so ya the 28th of december is the date but not for sure. so we´llsee and about the classes they need to be easy classes at the beginning if not ill be in trouble because im not even speaking english right so math and other stuff has to be worse haha. But ya taft and honey should be coming home on the 21st of SET thats the last word i heard and AJ should be coming home before that so ya next month it all starts everyone will start coming home pretty crazy and sad at the same time but i still have lots of time to enjoy the lords work. we´ll tell katie congrats shes doing a lot better than me when i was her age. and i hope the horse gets better. but ya love you guys thanks for everything miss ya all but not that much :) haha talk to ya soon Elder vudevarde (thats how the basilians say my name)
hey fam, i guess i could say that the week flew by but im kind of sick of saying that because thats what i always say ha. but its been a really good week we did have as many things happen this week like last week but a few things did happen. André whos a father of a family that was baptized here the week i got here and anyways weve been teaching him a lot and this last week we had a huge break through with him, he already told us that he was going to stop smoking but nothing had happened yet but this week he just stopped hes been smoking for 25 years and he just stopped all at one time and now its been 7 days and he hasnt smoked one :) and hes really excited for baptism his date is for the 5th of sep. and not this week but next week were going to have two people getting baptized these are the two that just ended up coming on there own to church and told us they wanted to here the lessons, there fighting with cafe right now but they should be good before baptism. and last week there was a big report on the tv saying that cafe is actually good for you so thats been giving us some trouble but nothing to bad. but ya this area is killing me ha we eat so much its like every house we go into someone is wanting to feed us haha if it keeps going the way its going im gona have some good pounds to lose when i get home. well yesterday i was in the office talking to the sec and he says that if im going to go home early its going to be on the 28th of dec or the 1 of jan but nothings set of course but we´ll have to see what happens. but just to let you guys know so dad can figure out some dates for school and all that good stuff. and i do need a favor im not really in need of anything besides new socks but i can get that easy but one thing is im going to need some money for these baptisms were going to have this month were hoping for 7 baptisms. because im going to buy them scriptures so they can have D&C and pearl of great price and i was not sure how much money i had so if you could see how much money and put a little in there that would help a lot. But ya dad asked if ive ever been bitten by a dog and ya i have but it wasnt anything bad and im pretty sure that dog hasnt bitten anyone since because i gave him a nice little kick to help him remember the next time he wanted to bit someone ha but theres been other close times but the lord watches over us. thats weird to hear katie going to EFY and dancing ha seems like she is really growing up. have the alliens already takin her away? like they did to dan derek mike and I? or is she still being a good girl? i think after parenting me anything would be easy haha but ya i love ya guys hope the dog dosent kill any one before i get home sound like a brody dog all over again. talk to ya guys soon Elder Woodward
hey fam, Tell mom happy B day for me :) but ya your going to have to check into the visting student thing a byu for me to see if that will be a possibility. and remind me of the dates for UVU i know youve already told me like twice but i dont remember ha just so i can figure out what ill have to do here so i can work out what day ill have to leave because there wanting to buy the tickets already so ya get some dates so i can tell them. but thats awesome that katie did so good thats awesome pretty cool stuff i hope the horse thing works out and its not that big of a problem let me know how it goes. so this week has been a week of blessings we have so many amazing people its crazy. this week Carol, Leonardos sister came up to me at church and told that i was not going to believe what happened to her. she told me that she had a dream the night before of her being baptized and i was baptizing her ha so shes getting ready but we dont have a date set yet because she wants to get baptized for the right reason and not just because we want her to. so ya were going to work with her on that. we have another that told us hes going to get baptized on the 5th of SEP and that hes going to stop smoking and be baptized on that day. and yesterday we had about 2 hours free to knock some doors so we said a quick prayer just asking for one person that was needing us so we started a street and knocked for 1 hour and 50 mins without teaching anyone which is really hard to do in Brazil haha but when we were getting to the end we had about three houses left and we were going to leave and go to our next appointment but we knocked the last three and we knocked on the last door and this lady came out on the phone and told us to wait so we waited for about 5 mins and as we were about to leave something told me to just ring it one more time so i did and she came out and invited us in. the lesson was normal we did all the invites and what not and at the end we helped her say a prayer and during her prayer she just broke down and started balling and was thanking Heavenly Father for answering her prayer sounds like that day she had said a prayer asking the lord to show her the truth. after the prayer she explained all this to us and how she was passing all kinds of hard times and how this was the first time she had felt peace in a long time while we were teaching her. so ya can you say elect. its amazing ive never seen so many blessings in such a short time on the mission. weve had three investagators have dreams this week showing them that this is a true message its like everyday the lord is putting someone in our way thats ready to be baptized its amazing. i love being and instrument in the lords hands and the answer to someones prayers its amazing. i love being a missionary i never want it to stop i never knew that you could feel this happy ha im not kidding. its the best feeling in the world. just want ya guys to know i love ya thanks for teaching me everything and showing me the way. theres a lot of people here in brazil that would give you all hugs and kisses for letting me help them and teach them the things that my family taught me my whole life. i love you guys tell everyone hi at kirks for me Elder Woodward
hey fam, well i started laughing when you said you almost put the horses name in the temple haha i dont think it really works that way with the horse ha but i hope it all worked out and the horse was able to do his thing. well the baptism was amazing i think the most spiritual baptism ive seen on the mission pretty much the whole ward was there supporting . elder magleby baptized and im going to comfirm him this week :) but the baptism was great. when they were changing cloths after the baptism leonardos mom got up (the one who has the problem with smoking) and bore an amazing testimony about the church and how its the best thing thats happened to her family and how she feels like shes part of another family and how shes so happy. then she started talking about elder magleby and me and how we were angels to her and her family and how much she loved us and will never forget what we did for her and her family. it was pretty amazing just about everyone was crying it was a way spiritual meeting one i wont be forgetting anytime soon. we just got to get the rest of them baptized now carol leonardos sister said that she wants to get baptized shes just praying for the right day so were going to help her with that. there giving us lunch tommorrow there pretty much all members now ha because the members always feed us everyweek and now there on that list to feed the missionaries. i gave them our family web site and they loved the pics and the horses haha. but ya other than the baptism week had a great week we taught this one family thats been going to church for the past three weeks all alone and we were finally able to teach them and we marked baptism dates for them on the 22nd so lets see if that one will end up going through but the lord is blessing us big time with really good people we are working a lot with part member families and its going really well we got one that told us he wants to be baptized he just has to stop smoking and weve got another one that has a daughter on a mission and she ended up telling us this week that she knows the bom is true and that joseph smith is a prophet so all we got to do is help her stop drinking cafe and thats it she´ll be baptized. so ya lots of good people and sounds like me and elder magleby are going to stay together for one more transfer and that means ill end up killing him here so that means ill be here for the next 3 months :) so were really excited about that were doing really well together. so ya about the school thing i talked to pres Cooley about that last week at interviews and i told him to decide for me ha and he ended up saying what i didnt want him to say. he said to go home early :( but if it was going to kill me to go home early then to not do it he said so ya if i really need to i can there is an sister that lives in highland thats in my same group that will be going home at the same time and she has to go home early to for school so pres would probably just send us home together but i dont really know when that would be maybe the last week of dec but well see we still got some time. but i was talking to this american guy thats in our ward thats going to stay here for a while and he said that i could try to get into byu as a visiting student during the summer or spring he said that he was going to look at it for me and tell me when and how. but that could be something you guys could look up to for me and see if that could be an option. well tell nathan and leslie good luck there going to love it. but like i said mom you need to get me a list of girls that are GOLD haha a list of ten haha and also your going to need to get me inshape because if i end up staying in this area like i think i will im going to need to lose so pounds when i get home this ward feeds the missionaries like they were horses haha its nuts. but ya love ya guys hope ya have a good week. talk to ya soon. love Elder Woodward
hey fam, well another fast week of course there is no such thing as a long week on the mission. but its been a good week we have a baptism this sunday his name is leonardo its like one of the best families ive found on the mission leonardo is 17 and hes going to be the first to get baptized then his older sister whos 19 will be next for sure her name is carol and then after her were going to baptise the mom cida her only problem is that she smokes but were helping her out with lots of goals. but were really excited for them this baptism is going to be great we should have a lot of people there that are all new investagators who will have a chance to see a baptism so that will be good. but ya transfers are next week but im not going to go anywhere ha i always say that but i shouldnt be moving for the next while im pretty sure that the pres will let me die out here well at least i hope so i really like this ward there great there helping a lot. but ya did anyone go to Thans wedding? how did that go? how are Derek and Hollie doing? tell them they better save up some money so they can be there when i get home. but ya thanks for the answers to. love ya guys talk to ya next week. Elder woodward
hey fam, well i knew that when you got old on the mission the letters would stop but i guess the email kind of stops to haha well this week was a hard one our baptism didnt happen during the interview she decided no that she wasnt ready :( and now shes getting pulled away by satan she didnt go to church and is avoiding us. its amazing the power satan has when you let him. but the lord is blessing us he blessed us with a new family and we marked dates with them so that should be good they went to church and loved it so thats good. also the mom of leonardo whos getting baptized on the 25th came for the first time and she love it to. her name is cida she absolutly loves us its so funny she is so worried about us like all day she calls us to see if were ok and is always making us food and since the first day we talked to her and her family shes called us her children ha the only reason she dosent have a date is becasue so smokes but were helping her with that so hopefully shell be able to stop here in a little bit and get baptized also. but ya things are going good here going really fast but going good. but ive got some questions for dad. 1. where did the japanese come from: (my keyboard dosent let me do a question mark ) 2. why is the BOM know as the stick of Ephraim when Lehi is from the tribe of manessiah compare Alma 10: 3 with Bible dic: Ephraim stick of let me know your thoughts about these two questions. thanks for everything elder Woodward
hey fam, well this week was full of Satan trying to distroy our work. the date we had for this sat almost feel through we taught her everything and she understood almost everything just one thing she was not understanding and that was the law of chastity. shes not married and the father of her daughter lives in rio janeiro and she is going to move out and live with him and after get married so this week she told us she was leaving on friday and that she was going to wait to get baptised and wait until they got married. but the only problem is that she was going to go out and live with him befor they got married. so we went home did a fast starting the next day and prepared a great law of chastity lesson and pretty much burned her really bad and told her that if she was truely wanting to get baptised she need to have a change of heart and attitude and we helped her realize that she had not changed yet and that she needed to repent and abandon her sins and that she could not live with him until after the marrage. we read alma 39 3-5 with her and told her that this is the worst thing she could possibly do. it was amazing the spirit was really strong everyone was crying by the end but in the end shes still getting baptised this sat and shes not moving out to rio until they get married. Being a missionary is amazing i say it all the time but really how cool is our calling as missionaries ha theres nothing better. i never want it to end ha im ready to keep going for the next 14 years just like Alma and the sons of mosiah. tell grandma and grandpa that i got there email and thanks i really enjoyed it. also tell Than congrats on the wedding i got his invitation. but ya i love ya guys give Derek and hollie a big hug for me and say hi to grandma and grandpa as well well guys until next week thanks for everything. Elder Woodward
hey guys, well its been good here in Jaragua this week weve got a few people that are already getting for baptism were trying to work a lot more with members which is really actually kind of hard but its giving a lot of results so were gona keep working as hard as we can to get references. but its been nice to be in this area its really far away from everything its almost in the mission campinas (tafts) mission im about 30 mins away from tafts area haha so its really close. but some areas close by so you can find me on google maps are Taipas,Perus, jardim Russo, franco da rocha, francisco morato. so just look for those citys and you should be able to find my area. i was able to talk to jon again haha he was at the temple yesterday and some other missionaries from our mission were there and talked to him and he gave me a call but sounds like hes doing really good still that will probably be the last time ill talk to him. but also today was really nice we went to the temple and got to go through and do a session. if you guys dont come and get me were going to have to come back here so you guys can go through the temple here its way pretty. so sounds like every one is getting older i cant believe katie is 14 thats nuts i remember when i turned 14 that was like yesterday ha tell her happy b day for me and to katie to. hey dad can you double check on all the dates for school for me because ill need to talk to president Cooley about what were going to do so just find out when its going to start i think you already told me but i forgot i think you said it starts on the 6th if im not mistaken. but ya love ya guys ill talk to ya next week elder woodward
fam, hey guys well it happened as you already know im out of the office ha i thought the day would never arrive. but ya my new area is called jaragua its up in the mountains its really nice here a lot different from the city ha it was a little bit of a shock for me ive been use to walking down really nice streets with huge buildings and nice cars everywhere. but now im back out in the ghetto :) where i feel most at home. my new comp is an american from cali his name is elder magelby hes been out here one of the zone leaders for about 6 months and hes going to finish his mission here in about three months so ill probably end up killing him out here and stay until the end of my mission.. well at least thats what im hoping will happen we´ll see. but hes a great kid really nice but hes had a really hard time with the language his whole mission he has a little bit of a speach problem but he can always get across what he needs to. so ya the day i got in this area last sat they had 7 baptisims ha ya a lot it was pretty cool to see. and now we are starting all over again with no one haha i swear thats how it always is but its been good this week we already marked a really strong date with this lady whose family are all members so thats a start and it looks like weve got a few others in sight already so this area is looking pretty good im excited to give it my all here and leave nothing behind. weve got a great ward that seems like it helps alot the 7 that were baptized last week were all references from members so it looks like there doing there part we just have to keep them all excited to do missionary work. hey tell grandma i got her package i just got done eating one sack full haha it turned out just fine and tell her i love and miss her. and tell Than im gone beat him up when i get home for not waiting for me to see his wedding that punk haha tell him i want photos. oh ya tell katie and mike i got the photos they sent i really enjoyed them im just missing photos of preston now tell dan and jess to send some to. well sounds like life is the same old at home ha seems like nothing really changes that much i guess thats a good thing because im not really missing out on much. so ya these past two weeks here has been way cold and by way cold i mean 45 50 degrees haha and im dying out here i went and bought a coat today because i couldnt take it anymore i never thought i would need to buy a coat but i did and its funny because its not even that cold just like 50 but im still dying haha. well guys thanks for everything ill talk to ya guys next week k love Elder Woodward
hey guys im off to the new area but remember my pday is on weds now so ill talk to you guys on weds love ya elder woodward
hey Fam, so one more week over faster than ever, now that ive been training here in the office there is lots of times that i dont have really anything to do so i just read and that just makes the days here fly by this week i finished the book of mormon in portuguese reading out loud!! i was pretty happy about that now im just going to keep going with D&C. but this past week i was talking with pres cooley in a interview about how i was really excited to leave the office and start working full time in the field again. so he asked me where i was wanting to go. and the truth is that i want to go back to sorocaba because i want to go back to the same region where i started my mission because this next area could be my last area. but of course i didnt say that ha i just told him to put me where im going to be the biggest help to the mission so we talked about that for a little while and he said he might be putting me in a branch with a bad companion haha i just laughed and said thats fine with me ha! but its not for sure ill know on monday where im going and who my comp is going to be but transfers are not until the 16th so here in ten days ill be out of the office :) its been good but my time is for sure up. And this next sat pres cooley is taking me to EMBU which is outside of our mission but its like this souvenir place with like paintings and wood carving stuff things that you would want to put in your house. Pres takes all his secretaries and assistants there at the end of there service in the office so if you could tell me how much is on the card so I don't try to buy something I cant that would be really nice. well this past week we had a really spiritual lesson with a member were doing this new thing where we go to a members house and teach them the 1st lesson like as if they were investigators and then we switch it over and have them teach us the 1st lesson so they can practice to teach there friends because the biggest problem about members giving us references is that they are all afraid to share the gospel because maybe they don't know what to say or how to do it so what were doing is helping them feel a little better about sharing the gospel and this way we can get more references :) so we did it with this one family that have been baptized for about a year and a half now and it went amazing during the lesson she started to cry it was way spiritual and at the end she already had a person she wanted to give to us to teach but were going to leave it to her to go there and invite her to hear the missionaries. shes doing that this Sunday so we´ll see how it goes next week. But this is a great way to get references our whole zone is doing it now and its going way good everyone is coming home with success stories sounds like all the members are wanting to share the gospel they just don't really know how to do it so they just end up not doing it but with this little extra push that were giving them it will give them something to think about and they can feel like they have a little more responsibility as members of the church to spread the gospel. I think I already told you guys this once but I think as a missionary one of the best things is doing a baptism interview. I think its one of the most spiritual thing you can do as a missionary ive been blessed big time being a district leader for so long because ive had the chance to do a bunch of baptism interviews. This week I did my 30th baptism interview!! Its been really amazing to see all these people excited, worthy, and prepared to be baptized. Well you guys I miss and love you all but the only problem is that the mission is just to amazing and there is no other place I would want to be and the scary thought is that I have to leave this place one day just keeps creeping up on me because the time is getting shorter and doesn’t seem to stop as much as you want it to. But I know the Lord is preparing a bunch of people for me in my next area and I couldn't be more excited to find them. Love you guys thanks for everything your son, Elder Woodward
hey fam, well its been another great week really fast as well. sounds like katie and dad are still going crazy with the horse stuff ha how long is the horse season? it seems like its been going on forever ha but you´ll have to let me know how denver went. well this week we were going to go with this family to sign them up to get married but the day before we were going to do it we were talking with the family and they totally threw us a curve ball telling us instead of getting married the were wanting to get separated. so we had a big long talk with them and there going to pray about it and go to church together this week. so that was a big let down but we have faith that they can work out there problems and we can mark a wedding and baptism date for them.but also this week we had zone conference and we learned a few things that are really going to help us work with the members a lot better. and that night we tried one of those things and on the first try we ended up getting a great reference from a family so that was a huge blessing and should be a great family. so today i was on a bus going over to Lapa which is like one of the bigger cities here in sao paulo and i had just gotten done looking at the pictures that dad sent and i was thinking about Dad, Dan, Derek, and Mike and how everyone of us have served missions. and i was thinking about that and about all the other families in the world our family is among only a few others how amazing is that. i was thinking about how happy that would make me if i was a father and all my boys served full time missions. i mean it looks like you and mom must have done something right to get all of us out on missions. and now look three of them have all married in the temple and two have already started there own family. so that got me thing about Heavenly Father and his family and how happy he must be with his righteous children. because we are his glory. and each and every one of us is going to have our own glory through our family. so think about this dad... what you have carried on from you parents, and with mom what you had started when you became a member of the church. and know its all entering into another generation with Preston and Parker thats a pretty cool feeling if you ask me. so well done mom and dad you couldn't have done it any better if you ask me. well guys im almost out of the office. im pretty sure i was not made to be an office elder im just way happier out working in the hot sun getting sun burnt than staying inside with the air conditioning haha elder swan is doing great hes learning everything really fast. so ya only two and a half weeks left here in the office then im back out again :) but ya thanks for the pics i liked them. ill talk to you guys next week. Elder Woodward
Fam, hey guys its good to hear from ya its been a good week The sisters that are in our zone baptized this kid that me and my comp did a contact with like a month ago and now hes preparing to serve a mission. It was pretty cool how we ended up talking to him. It was one of the days where everything feel through and we weren't in any kind of a mood to talk to anyone. but we wanted to finish our goal of talking to 20 people that day so on our way home we only had 2 more each so instead of just going home and calling it good we stayed out for another 10 mins or so and finished them. so when we got to our door we were unlocking it and walking in when this 18 year old kid yelled out missionaries from across the street so we ended up talking to him and he was looking for missionaries he read about the church that day and he prayed that he would run into some missionaries. so we got his address and everything and passed it to the sisters that lived in his area. and a month later he was baptized and is now preparing to serve a mission so ya pretty cool story huh. yesterday elder swan and i were doing some contacts and we ran into this girl who was mad at the world it seemed haha but ya we told her we had a very special message and she was like, what... a special message of apostasy! i couldn't help it but laugh because its something i would probably say to two missionaries. but we just bore testimonies of the Restoration and how there is no other message like it in the world and that there is no one in the world that can tell her that something is true or not but that she had to pray about it. it was amazing just to see her whole countenance change and she told us now she was curious and wanted to hear more. so were going there tomorrow :) but it just makes me so proud to be a member of the church. the message of the restoration is so powerful and it makes so much sense. so ya those were two experiences we had this week that were really cool. well how are things going there still doing a lot of horse show stuff, when does the show season get over? oh ya before i forget can you tell me when you put money on my card because im going to go buy some garments because im in need ha and also these last few weeks here in the office might be the last here in the city because i might be going to the country side far away from the city well at least i hope so. and if thats the case i might want to buy some stuff while im here in sao paulo before its to late. so if you could tell me when and how much you put on that would really help me because i have no way of telling out here. but ya i love you guys thanks for everything. PS who is Tig i have no idea who your talking about. Love Elder Woodward
Fam, well it was good talking to you all its nuts that the next time im going to talk to you guys ill be like two weeks from coming home. i really cant believe how the time goes on the mission. but ya so your reading PMG thats awesome that book is amazing it was a book written in heaven and published on the earth there could not be a better missionary tool in the world. But ya our area is going good we have this great family who needs to get married but there way awesome were going to mark a wedding date for them this next week and then get them baptised. but ya thats really about it for this week i really enjoyed talking to you guys last week. but im almost out of the office im counting down the days now haha :) im almost there ha ha tell mike thanks for the pics. Elder Woodward
hey Fam well i guess i should tell you guys what time to call huh well im not sure i need to know what time you guys have church so ya thats a problem so ill probably call you guys here in like 5 mins and mark a time with you guys ok well i guess theres not much to say ill just talk to you guys tommorrow but ya talk to ya in a bit. elder woodward
hey fam well i hope this moab thing dosent stop happening when i get home. it would be just my luck but ya you guys need to send me some pics of the jeep i havent even seen it yet. but ya this weds is transfers and im going to train E swan who is way awesome i was in the same district with him out in julio de mesquita so im way excited for that even though its kinda funny because as soon as you learn to get like everything under control you have to train ha its funny how it works like that. but im really excited to get out and work in the field again like way excited ive had enough of the office life im ready to go back as a real missionary again. but this week has been really cool these past two weeks ive done 8 baptism interviews ha its been so much but for sure one of the best things about the mission is doing baptism interviews its like one of the most spiritual things you can do i did one this week with this Japaneses guy which for sure was the best of them all hes 18 years old and one of the questions he asked me was how can he study the BOM so that he can teach other people better ha it was so amazing the interview went about an hour he was asking about everything it was really great but hes really excited to go on a mission. so after a few tears from both of us and a big hug he asked me when he could have a name tag like mine ha ha. so ya that was amazing. and also i got an email from João paulo the guy i baptised in julio de mesquita and sounds like hes baptizing people over in his new ward that hes working a ton with the missionaries over there. i was hoping that he could go on a mission but he cant because he already has a little boy whos a 1 and 1/2 but hes still working as hard as he can with the missionaries there so that made me really happy. so this week we have a handicap in out office that cant work because he has some back problems so we have to have someone staying here with him in the office everynight so its making our work kind of hard. but ya ive got to go were going to the city again to day an elder broke my watch that i bought so i need to go there and get it fixed. but ya love you guys have a fun weekend.
hey fam well its getting cold here and when i say cold i mean 80 degrees ha ha but that its been a great week we made a contact with this guy who is one of the owners of city bank who is like crazy rich but not prideful at all he was way nice and loved the message and when we invited him to be baptized we asked him if he received a answer to his prayers if he would follow that answer being baptized on the 23 of may and he said for sure if he received a answer he would follow it. so that was way cool it was way different teaching someone that was so smart because usually we teach people that arent so smart ha but ya ill let you guys know how that goes. and also this week i found out that the area that im in is one of the areas the james e faust passed through were working on one of the streets that he worked alot theres a convert that lives one that street that was baptized by him. so i guess thats a pretty cool fact. well you have no idea what im doing today another elder thats here in the office with me did a contact with this kid who plays rugby and he invited us to come and play with his team today ha we told him we couldnt play but pres is letting go there and watch the game ha so ya today here in about 30 mins im going out there to watch the game. but about the school thing if im going to play rugby i want to end up going to byu and to do that i would need to go to slcc and get good grades and transfer because if i do that i could still practice with byu. but i dont know if i want to keep playing rugby full time again im mean i do but at the same time i dont i had mix feeling about it. but the schools i would probably like the most would be U of U or UVU i dont think i would want to go to USU but ya check out the due dates and everything as of now im suppose to come home on the 13 of JAN. so maybe that will help you out a little bit but ya ive got to run were off to go see that rugby game ha love you guys talk to ya next week. love Elder Woodward
well i just got back from that rugby game it was pretty cool they played alight i thought that they wouldnt be that good but they played pretty well they tried to get me and elder bramwell to play ha ha but we told them we couldnt so i ended up being the line judge ha so ya i had to end that last email fast because we were leaving. but i needed to tell you guys that the mission got rid of one of the addresses the only one that works now is the Rui Batista Pereira 165 Jardim Caxingui Sao paulo SP 05517-080 i think its the one you guys use normally but i know grandma uses the caixa postal one so just tell everyone to use the actual address for now on ok. well love ya guys ill talk to ya later elder woodward
Fam hey guys well i cant believe its still snowing i knew that the two years that i left it would snow big like it has and the year i get back its just going to be horrible ha ha. well things in here are still going good its getting closer and closer to me leaving the office :) its not that i havent liked the office its just that i miss being a missionary all day instead of just at night. but were hanging in there im really excited to get out and go to my last area i hope because when i get out of here ill have about 6 months left on the mission so i hope the pres will just leave me there to do a big work with six months theres a lot you can do for one ward so ya that should be good. this week we had mission council with all the zone leaders and i did a training about finances and all the good stuff which went over pretty well. and while we were eating dinner there pres came up from behind me while i was putting a spoon full of rice in my mouth and hit my elbow spilling my food ha its just the kind of guy pres Cooley is hes really funny. so ya anyways i felt like i would get him back so i went and got a plate full of food again and i saw that pres was filming so i thought to myself i pretend to throw my plate at the camera so me being really dumb went ahead and did it while forgetting that rice and beans slide around really easy on a plate so my brief laughs were stopped immediately when i felt my plate get a little lighter and then i saw the rice and beans go all over the nice tan carpet. President just looked at me and then the floor and then back at me and said well i guess i was needing to clean the carpet anyways. so there it is Jake still dose really stupid stuff on the mission ha he has not changed to much ha ha. so thats my stupid story for the week. but ya say hi to than tomorrow for me and let me know how this girlfriend from the mission thing turns out hmmmm... thats interesting. but ya and give grandma a big hug and kiss for me tell her i got her package and loved it im eating it and the sunflower seeds you sent right now. thanks for everything say hi to everyone for me at thans homecoming talk. but ya love ya guys talk to ya soon Elder Woodward
Hey dad, before i forget i was studying the other day reading a talk from general conference i forgot who its was but it made me start thinking about here in 5 years. so i want you to do a little project for me i want a five year detailed plan something i dont have time to do here on the mission. our mission pres was talking about on the mission we need to think about three things 1 is our mission the work and our investigators the 2nd most important is what kind of a person we want to marry (qualities) that you want in a wife. and the 3rd most important is your education. so since my high school career was pretty much a joke that i some how pulled off. i want to have a plan for when i get home about my education which college i will be able to get into with a 3.0 grade point average and how long it will take me to get my generals out of the way and then what i need to do to go into a business, communications or medicine. which college would be the best for each three and what kind of grades i would need to get to transfer into each one. so what im wanting is a calender for the next five years after my mission with goals and dates that they have to be done. because i cant take college like i did highschool if i do (Já era) as they would say in Portuguese. so you have about 8 and a half months to get to work on this dad. i know you would be the best one to do this. so im pretty much asking you to map out my life for the next five years. so ya that was my thought and i wanted to let you know now so you could get it started for me. but by having you help me out with this i can not worry about it to much out here and just keep working. so ya give it some thought and go ahead and put in there what you think would also be best for me. think about what you did and how i can follow the same patterns to get the best education i can. but ya let me know what you think about this. and mom your job, just so your not left out is to find my wife :) love ya guys Elder woodward
hey guys well conference was great and how about that guess :) elder Anderson use to be the area president here a while ago but it was my guess i also thought elder Costa might be that talked in the priesthood session but after he came and visited our mission like two weeks before i kind of canceled him out. but ya did you guys watch the press conference after when he was interviewed. he seemed really nervous. im really excited to see his progression. it seems that every time a apostle gets called he just grows so much. i guess the lord just qualifies them for the work. but ya our area is a lot different than my old one but its been going really good we got a reference from some other elders. who is really great we taught him the first lesson and invited him to be baptized and he accepted with a firm yes for the 2 of may. so that was a big blessing its been a while since this ward has had a baptism but other than that were still working pretty hard we only work after 5 everyday so its always crazy at night were always running all over the place to try and teach. but ya Easter here is nuts everyones like super catholic we just got back from the center of sao paulo and there was like at least a million people at this big famous park where you have a minister in front of everyone with huge speaker phones and tvs and hes just screaming his head off in tongues as they say. its just straight up apostasy ha but being in sao paulo for over a year now i think im just use to the random church on the corner that has two people in it with a minister screaming at the top of his lungs ha i remember that being the funnest thing when i first got here its amazing how you change how everything was so different at first but now its so natural as if ive always known it. but ya today we spent almost the whole day in the center i bought myself a 5,000 dollar watch for 60 dollars so thanks for the easter gift :) but ya like i was saying easter here is a big deal like theres all kinds of events and shows and chocolate lots of chocolate. its for sure one of the biggest or the biggest catholic holiday. today in the center it was nuts never seen so many people in one place every one buying like crazy for easter tomorrow ill send ya pic of where we were. so sounds like katie is doing way good in all the horse shows ha that awesome is dad still doing a little bit of showing? is it finally starting to fill like spring there here its still hot but its getting a little colder at night so its giving us a little break. so this transfer is only going to be five weeks instead of six theres always one thats shorter during the year so that means im almost out of here :) and back in the field i have this transfer and the next one im training someone new im pretty excited for that. but you need to say high to than for me and thanks to sheri for the email they sent me with the pics of will and jackson they both look so much bigger than they were. but ya thats about it from here its been a good week and of course time is going faster than ever out here like always but what can ya do you just got to live it up and get the most out of it as you can. but love ya guys happy easter say hi to grandma
hey well i got transferred but ya just like you said we all stay here in the office but we just have areas around us that we have to walk a little ways to get there. but ya were going to see all the sessions the first one starts here at 1 the second at 5 and priesthood starts at 9. its really nice they´ll have a English room for us just for the missionaries so that will be nice. im really excited to see who the next apostle will be my moneys on Anderson but who knows. i also think my old mission pres will be called to be a 70 Michael john bertasso ha but well see. but ya my new area is alot bigger than my last one and theres about nothing here we just have to start from scratch like my last area. because my old area is going to baptize next week and the week after. so now just have to do the same thing in this area the area is called bonfiglioli its a little richer area. but ya today is going to be pretty awesome im really excited for conference. oh ya i dont know if i told you guys but i talk to honeys old mission pres elder brington like everyday because he´s the medical of brazil now so i have to talk to him about all of our sick missionaries. he loved honey he said he was one of his best missionaries so ya you got to tell his parents for me. but ya thats about if for this week its been pretty good my new comp is elder melo hes from joao pessoa brasil that means john person ha but he talks english really well and hes learned it all here on the mission hes going to go to byu after the mission so that will be really nice i will be able to introduce you guys to him. but thats about it from me i cant believe its still snowing there thats nuts it better snow really good next year to. love ya guys hope you enjoy conference until next week Elder woodward
hey look who it is ha ha just kidding. well is anyone excited for conference? im dying out here the first conference at home im going to go to the conference center so you cant tell bro woolsy he can save me some tickets for the spring morning session of 2010 alright. well last week and this week were really good i ended up seeing jon at the temple and was able to spend a little time with him he looks like hes doing great and loving it just like i am. hes still the good old jon i remember ha but that was really cool we took some pics ill have to send them to you guys. but the work here in this area is amazing these past two weeks its been nots weve found so many good people like really good three really good families yes families and three of them. we taught one of them for the first time yesterday it was funny i ended up eating my own words. when we got to the house i said to my comp before i knocked on the door that this family was a weak contact that didnt seem to interested ha dont think ive ever been so wrong in my life this family was gold we taught just the mom and the daughter. so ya we started teaching this family and the mom talked so much the lesson was not that good because she talked like crazy but she told us how the other day she was at the store with her daughter whos 8 years old and her daughter saw a bible and asked her what it was and her mom was like what do you mean its a bible daughter and her daughter was like well whats a bible and her mom told her that the bible taught about God. and then her daughter asked whos God? and thats when it hit the mom that she had not taught her daughter anything about church and Heavenly Father. so she told us that story as she was crying and how she use to go to the Baptist church so much when she was little but these past 15 years shes stopped and now she dosent want to go back to the baptist church and how she looking for a church for her and her daughter so her daughter can grow up in the church. and there is nothing sweeter you can here than that and how we already know that the first time she goes to the primary she´ll be hooked ha. when we invited them to come to church the little girl was so excited she stood up and was begging her mom to go. the little girls was so cute im not kidding she was like mom please please please mom lets go please mom kinda like i would when i wanted mom to buy me something at the store. then the little girl was telling her mom that she wanted to learn about God and Jesus. so we explained about the primary for the little kids and relief society and all that good stuff. but the best part of the lesson was at the end when we asked the little girl to pray by the end of the prayer everyone had watery eyes. the times that ive cried on the mission have been with children there so pure and perfect and have so much faith its amazing how much we can learn from children they really are the ones that will inherit the kingdom of God ha. so ya its awesome that were finding all these people but stinks because next week im going to another area :( ha its always like that isnt it once things are going the way you want it after youve left your blood and sweat in that area you have to leave ha. but what can ya do. well thats the work for this week its been pretty good. so whats this i hear about Katie messing up her knee how did she do that in wal mart? thats what i want to know. and how was Andens talk did he seem ready to go. he was baptized like three years ago right. thats so cool that hes going on a mission i bet kirk and Kaylee and all of them are way proud of him. we have a lot of missionaries like that here that have only a few years in the church. who are really some of the stronger missionaries in the mission. but ya sounds like things are going good at home. its still snowing thats nuts ha its almost april and its still snowing. but thats about it from here this week its been a good one i hope mom gets better and Katies knee gets better. oh ya i do have one thing to ask you guys to send that would help so i dont get fat here in the office and that would be dill pickle sunflower seeds a big package of them that way instead of eating i can just chew sunflower seeds. so if you could help me out with that i would be a every happy elder and if not i will still be a happy elder just a fatter one. love ya guys until next week Elder Woodward
hey Fam well this week was awesome we were able to here from Elder Costa which was amazing i was able to see him a lot because he was coming in and out of the office with president a lot so that was amazing he lives in draper so we talked about that for a little while. but ya he gave a training that was amazing thats really going to help the mission out a ton he talked a lot about teaching right next to the chapel. so during his talk he looked to the assistants and said you guys have 30 mins to leave and find a family within two streets of the church and mark a baptism date with them. ha you should have seen the look on there faces they got up and pretty much ran out of there ha but long story short they came back in about 30 mins with a good story they ended up finding a great family whos dad had just died and were passing through a hard time. and elder costa just said i did that because the spirit told me to do it and then he went on and talked about the spirit it was an amazing training/talk. but ya that was this week the office is still really crazy but im able to handle it all now and ill be out of here in june every secretary stays only six months or four transfers you get trained for one stay on your own for two and then you train someone on the forth transfer. transfers here are no big surprise i already know who my next comp is and what area ill be serving in so ya. were going to baptize this girl jessica here in a little bit whos going to be the last of her family to be baptized so thats going to be awesome to complete that family. but ya hows the fam doing derek and hollie how are they hows his new job? hows Nathaniel doing is he better did you guys go and see him? this next week i should be able to see Jon at the temple i hope we´ll see how that goes. but ya thats about it from here just the same old same old oh ya i got ran over by a bike the other day i forgot about that we both fell on the ground ha it was pretty funny everything went flying my book of mormon my pass along cards my bag ha everything. I dont remember if i told you guys that but here in our mission we all walk with a book of momon in hand at all times were the only mission in brazil that dose it so when i see other missionaries from another mission walking with out one it looks so weird to me they dont look like missionaries because im so use to seeing missionaries with the BOM in hand. ya i dont remember if i ever told you guys that when i first got here maybe i did. but ya love ya guys talk to ya next week. te amo Elder Woodward Elder ala de madeira
hey fam well its good to hear from you guys this week........... oh wait ha ha i didnt. well its been a different week we havent been able to work a lot in our area because we have an elder here in the office that cant walk so this past week weve been taking care of him and hes going home this sunday so well be able to work a lot more outside this next week its just been these past two weeks that have been crazy and we havent been able to work a ton which is driving me crazy because im stuck inside all day and not being able to work. but the night we did leave we marked a date with this girl that just got adopted into this family who are resent converts who we baptized like a month ago so that was really cool. the ward is getting really excited because they have not had a baptism in like a long time and this is the third in a month and a half so i hope now that they will start to help out a little more with the missionary work thats the hardest things out here in brasil is to get the members excited and actually active in the missionary spirit so i hope this will help the future missionaries to come because ill be out of this ward in about 4 weeks or three not really sure how much time this transfer has left but hopefully the missionaries coming in will be able to get more help from the members. but ya life is good im in need of deodorant so if your going to send me a package make sure you put some deodorant in it for me. and the other day i tried using my card and it didnt work if you could try and see how much money i have on there so i can know i think that maybe the place i tried to use it was messed up and not working right but ya thats about it. oh ya tell the honeycutts that i get to talk to mikes old mission president like weekly because his the medical doctor of brasil now so i get to talk to him a lot he said that mike was a great elder when he was there. but ya thats about it talk to ya guys next week love Elder Woodward
hey fam, well i dont know where to really start this has been the craziest week of my mission ive spent about half of this week in the hospital. last sunday we had and elder get really sick which was something really weird just to make a really long story short an elder got sent home early because he was playing with things that bring bad spirits and his companion was hospitalized because of it. so its been a big mess here so ive been running back and forth to the hospital everyday and ive had to stay up until midnight and two in the morning a couple times this week talking with the hospital and reporting to the president about his condition and today i just got back from the hospital i ended up spending the night with the elder because he got taken out of intensive care so someone could stay with him and today i ended up taking a taxi back from the hospital alone with was really weird ha the president said i could go home take a shower and everything and go back later tonight so ya thats just a little bit of what happened this week the watered down version. i had no idea that being in the office would be this crazy ha but i guess its all part of the experience right. but ya one the upper side of things were going to have a baptism this week his name is felipe hes been taught for about 6 months by other elders before i got to the office and now he just decided to get baptized so that was a big blessing im really excited about that and hopefully next week we will baptize again will see how it goes but ya thats been one crazy week one to remember thats for sure. but i didnt even know that Nathaniel was sick whats he sick with anybody know? he only had a few months left didnt he like 5 or something like that. thats sad i bet hes pretty beat up about it say hi to him for me and wish him luck. so ya after going through all this stuff at the hospital i had some strange thoughts go through my head i was sitting there looking at this doctor looking at this x ray and i thought to myself thats what i want to do.ha first time in my life that i ever had the feeling to go into medicine but im just going to put that to side for now and think about that later before i just decide to go into 8 years of studying ha ha but ya fam thats the week from this end. sounds like you guys are still enjoying that crazy Utah weather tell everyone hi for me love ya guys until next week Elder Woodward
hey fam well one more week gone and here i am again writing you guys. well it was transfers week this week which is always crazy here at the office my new comp is elder ferraz from brasilia he has about 10 months on the mission but ya its been a good week our investigators are coming along we had like 7 people at church last week so that was really nice. weve got felipe thats going to be baptised next sunday whos really excited about baptism its been awesome to teach him hes one of the investigators that just accepts everything and really wants to be baptized and were also teaching this older lady that wants to get baptized but shes not married and her husband whos not really her husband dose not want to get married so its been really tough and were never able to talk to him hes never at home and when hes there he just gets up and leaves and wont listen so its a tuff situation but ya theres a few others that were teaching that have potential but still looking for a lot of news but ya story time i saw a man last night get hit by a car going 50 mph and the man ended up landing at my comps feet and i but the man ended up jumping up and running away turns out he was running from the cops but i couldnt believe he lived i never seen anything like that i thought i saw a man die in front of me but ya i guess thats sao paulo for ya. but yes mom i do feel very old i heard that alex Johnson is getting married to ha its really weird ha im not ready for any of that i just want to stay here on the mission ha but hey i got your package with the shirt and the puzzle thanks alot i really liked the tie and tell grandma that i got her package to which was amazing she sent me those things she makes every thanksgiving which the jelly inside ha i couldnt believe she sent them to me in a package ha but it worked and they were amazing tell her she can send them again k everyone here at the office loved them ha oh that reminds me im gona need new deodorant package im almost out and if you havent sent those movies yet dont worry about it k but ya say hi to sister stucki for me and the honeycutts i liked the pics they sent but since ive been here i havent really heard anything about horses or that kind of stuff so ya dont know what to tell ya but ya love ya guys talk to ya next week thanks for everything. elder woodward
Well i just wrote you guys a good letter and went to go send it and it didnt work há and then it erased it all. But ya looks like the sickness is affecting all the way out here in brasil to ive been really sick this week two well not horrible sick but sick just been going to the bathroom a lot something that I have not had to do since I first got here in my first area but im fine now it was just a couple of days. But ya its been a good week that man luciano was baptized Sunday as a surprise for his wife who is a member she started crying and everything it was really good but ya its been a really crazy week to these past two weeks ive had three comps I got put with the assistant and his comp for a week and then the other assistants comps parents came and picked him up so the other assistant was with out a comp so I got put with him so ive been with him this week and next week ill finally get my real comp for good at transfers but the thing about living in the office you already know who your comp and your new area before the transfers so ya my next comp is elder ferraz the executive sec so it should be pretty good im staying in my area which im happy about because this area has not baptized a man above 18 years in three years and we were able to baptize one last week and weve got another one coming up here in a few weeks so that's going to be great for this ward.. The lord is really been blessing us with the little time we have to teach he has been putting the right people in our path. But y aim getting pretty good at yelling at people in Portuguese ha because you got all the people that are trying to steal or trick us into paying more like the other day I got a call from an lawyer saying that he was going to kick some missionaries out of an house if we didn't pay them more ha so ya you have to deal with this kind of stuff all the time but its been great for me its for sure pushed me out of my comfort box which has helped me grow a lot im just mission the day to day missionary work but I just need to finish my work here then ill get my chance to sprint to make up for the time that I was in the office. When I leave here I want to finish my mission in that area to be able to stay there for 6 months and really help that ward but ya that's still down the road. So sounds like things are not really changing back at home just keeps snowing and snowing which I knew would happen as soon as I left on my mission ha ha but oh well. But I haven’t seen jon yet im going to see him next month but I did talked to the financial sec of sao Paulo south mission the other day during a training we had over the internet and sounds like jons doing great and yesterday I did a split with this kid that just got back for rio de janeiro mission and turns out that him and Honeycutt were like really good friends so that was really cool but ya hope you all get better love ya guys. your son ELDER WOODWARD
did you say bridal shower for chantel or did i read something wrong ha i must be getting old if shes already getting married ha. but ya you know how i write alot saying that my mission always filps upside down? well here its goes again monday the elder that was training me here in the office got emergency transfered out to my first area sao bento way out in sorocaba because and elder there broke his foot and the other has a really bad problem with worms he so the pres took the one with worms out and left the one with the broken foot there because he only has two weeks left and then hes going home so ya my comp went out there with him and left me here in the office with only four weeks so i had to lean what people dont learn in 6 weeks in less than four weeks so long story short its been a really long stressful week ive had one call for a lawyer saying that they were going to throw missionaries out of an house because of an old payment that was never payed from before i got here ha and some other missions forgot to pay there payment so there energy got cut so there with out energy at there house and theres a ton others that never got payed or something went wrong with there payment so ya its been one big headache oh ya and to make things alot easier they made me the district leader for 4 sisters and anyone thats ever been a DL of sisters knows what im talking about ha ha so ya i have two most unwanted positions in the mission field financial secretary and DL of four sisters ha ha but its been good i dont ever remember being this stressed in my life but theres a first time for everything right and because of it im being really blessed last sunday i had a man come up to me and tell me that he wants to be baptized the next sunday hes a husband of a member thats been taught forever and finally decided that its time to be baptized so tomorrow were going to baptize him and today i get the chance to baptize one of the sister investigators so thats gonna be nice but my comp now is the assistant but because hes always going around doing everything while im here in the office im the comp of anyone and everyone thats around when i need to leave i just grab someone and go with them ha but ya things are going good. whats derek doing in japan? hows mike and Katie doing? dan ever get that job? but ya ive got to go were about to leave the office so ill talk to you guys a little later love you all tchau
like i said its a good thing im in the office so i can get on my email again when you guys dont get it off to me earlier. well its been a good week it was the week of zone conference so its been really busy but its been good the end of this transfer is on the 18th so ive got to know how to do everything in here by then if not im gona be in trouble because elder anderson wont be here to help me out ha but i think i should be ok the hardest thing is to just keep organized because you just have so many things going on at once your always getting things handed to you so ya you end up getting a little lost but its fun ha im not going to lie just getting use to the difference. but ya today we ended up going to the center which is always and experience walking on a street that has more than two million people walking down it everyday. i just remember all these things being so crazy when i first got here and now it just seems like home ha just another day on the mission. i found out that me and jon are like only an hour by bus away from each other its like me being in alpine and him in AF ha its crazy im going to be able to see him again when he goes to the temple ill be able to meet him there because the temple is like my neighbor ha so thats going to be cool. i got your package by the way the two of them i forgot to tell you but they came like two weeks ago with the pants and jerky the pants were just a little long but it still works just fine thanks :) so its still snowin there, thats one thing i could say i miss ha. oh if you didnt find those movies dont worry about it you dont have to keep looking for them k. well thats about it for this week its been a fast one the weeks in here are really fast im not just saying that because it really dose go twice as fast in here its horrible. oh ya tell the spauldings that i got there package to and that im using there pillow right now ha and that im still eating all the candy but ya love ya guys thanks for everything say happy bday to preston for me k te amo até mais Elder Woodward
well i guess its a good thing im in the office now because i got on earlier but no one wrote me so now im gettin on but ya i cant believe what happened to the scriptures like really i cant believe it the dog just destroyed everything thats almost funny but so sad at the sametime but like you said a new chance to study even harder now you got to make up of all the years of study that you did and now you can mark your scriptures a better way just think of it that way you´ll learn a bunch of new things now by starting over again. well its been a good week i thought that the mission was passing fast when i was out working in the street all day but ive found out that in the office it even goes faster and faster and your always so busy i almost forgot that i was my hump day im not kidding another elder of my group called me and reminded me and it was a weird feeling sad a feeling of panic a little bit i mean because im going to be in the office for 6 months and then ill only have 6 more in the field then its all over and these two and a half weeks in the office are going way fast and everyone saying that here time just goes and you dont even realize it so like if your asking me how im feeling its the nervous sad panic feeling because everyone always talks about life after the mission but at the same time no one ever wants to leave the mission so ya thats how im feeling with one year on the mission its nuts. but life here is good im learning alot things that i would have never thought in my life that i would learn on a mission but thats how the lord works i guess. maybe hes teaching me how to work with money because im going to be rich and i need to know how to take care of it ha ha ha ha just kidding but i was thinking about aj taft and honey those guys are coming up on 7 and 6 months left time is amazing on the mission its like you wait your whole life to serve and then it gets here and then its already halfway gone i still cant get rid of the feeling that im still the new guy in the mission field when now im one of the older guys. but ya enough talking about how much time i have its making me sad i dont want to come home ha sorry i love ya guys but i still dont want to come home. my new comp is really great his name is elder anderson hes from hooper utah i think hes one of my favorite comps yet hes helping me a ton with computer stuff that i dont know how to do that now im learning and im helping him with the teaching and the language because while hes been in here at the computer ive been out teaching all day so its worked out really good weve helped each other alot but ya thats life this week its been good the work outside of the office is really hard its a tiny area thats been worked alot its one of the first areas ever in brazil but its still good weve found some good people to help so thats been a blessing but ya love ya guys keep me posted and send me some more pics of the dog i really liked the dog. is he going to grow more? te amo seu filho elder woodward
all i can say is i dont believe you really got another dog ha that is so funny i remember when you would not let me get a dog no way no how ha and now we have two dogs i think its because mom is making up for derek moving away and me being on a mission ha ha what do you think dad? but whats this talk about 5 horses i thought it was only 4? but ya sounds like things are going good at home hows the weather still snowing alot still really cold? but ya things are going good here the office is way different than the everday work my biggest problem is the computer stuff how to do all the little things on the computer but other than that its pretty good its alot of stuff your working like crazy all day its like you work all day like a normal work day at home if i was working in and office at home and then you got to met all your numbers for teaching on top of that so its a handful but im really liking it. its fun being around the president all day and getting angry phone calls from people yelling at you in port ha ha but ya things are going good. send me some pics of the new dog i would like to see this in person i still am in unbelife ha ha well love ya guys thanks for everything say thanks to the spauldings for the package i really enjoyed it love elder woodward
you guys got a new dog!!!!!! ha youve got to be kidding ha but ya my new schedule is work in the office until about 6 or 630 then we go out and work so ya its a big difference but its been really good. but during the day i just sit behind a computer and type all day set up appointments and play with money all day ha so ya thats my job thats way different than anything ive done in my life ha but its going to be good im really liking it its really hard for me but its going to be good love ya elder woodward
well fam life in the office is a whole new world ha i really dont know how im going to do this job im the financial secretary now i feel like these first few days my head has just been opened and people have been shoving these things in my head ha im really regretting not paying attention in computer class ha ha i think this is the lord getting back at me for not paying attention in math and computer class because thats all i do now is computer and numbers ha ha and just yelling at other people that try to get our money by trying to sell us stuff for way more ha so i guess my people skills are really going to have to kick in now. but its really cool to be around with the pres all the time the other day me and the pres went in the car to visit an elder in the hospital so that was some good one on one time but ya i asked him why me pres and he said that if i could take two hits in the face that i could take verbal hits all day as the financial secretary ha ha so ya i guess elder ereias hitting me in the face was a blessing ha and to this day i dont know what stopped me from just killing him after ha because thats what ive always done so ya the lord works in mysterious ways this is proof. but ya p day is on sat now for me so make sure you write before sat. and i gave the fam website to some people in my last area so they must have checked it out. but ya love ya guys talk to ya next week elder woodward
well fam its been two crazy weeks your not going to believe what happened ha well two mondays ago elder ereais that problem elder i was with hit me two times in the face ha ha can you believe that what happened is that we were in a lesson with a new family and it was the 1st lesson and i asked him to start with a prayer and he said no i dont want to in front of everyone and so i prayed and started the lesson and when it got to his turn to talk in the lesson i looked at him and he acted suprised and said no you can keep talking ha so ya the spirit was lost so i finished the lesson and when we were walking in the street i was like elder why didnt you teach back there and he was like i wasnt feeling it ha so i said if your not feeling why are you here go home and thats when the first fist was thrown that got me in the nose and then i grabed him and in between that i got another in the jaw ha and then i just laughed at him and let him go and told him to hit me again when he realized that it didnt do anything he got mad and just started yelling at me but ya that happened last week i talked to the pres and he let me stay with him the last week but ya i dont have much time to explain because i just got pulled out of my area and put in the office ha ha so ya my life has just turned upside down so im now in the office as a secretary ha so if you guys have not been praying for me now would be a good time to start ha but ya my p day is now going to be on sat and not on weds k so ill talk to you guys a little more then k love ya guys
so ya about the phone thing im pretty sure that you guys will call this number(15) 3222-2207 or your going to call (15) 9700-3154 but im not sure yet ha ha so what im going to do is ill call you tonight from a pay phone and let you know. the first number is a members phone but the thing is that the member has two missionaries in the field so there going to talk to them on christmas to so ive got to see today when there going to call so i can call you guys and let ya know when. i think its going to be around 6 or 7 at night my time. and were five hours ahead of you guys so ya just wait for a phone call tonight ill call dads cell because i know mom wont answer ha ha and if dad dosent answer ill call the house phone. alright talk to ya guys tonight and tommorrow
hey fam well its been a good week to my suprise me and my comp havent had any problems yet weve just been bustin our butts working to death i think hes feeling like he didnt give his mission his all so hes trying to make up for all of it this last transfer so its been going really good. we found a great family this past week who are way excited to get married and baptised so thats way exciting but ya i still havent gottin the package yet im still waiting, and about the phone call im not sure yet on where were going to do it and what time ha ha but next pday is on the 24th so i should have it figured out by then and if something happens ill just call you guys from here and give you a number but ya sounds pretty exciting there with the new horse and snow which i miss dearly and cold weather ha but ya i guess ill just talk to you guys next week k love ya elder woodward
hey fam good to hear from you guys well the transfers were a little crazy my old comp went to the capital with another american elder that i know pretty good who will be great for him. so ya when we got there i had to go into a meeting for the district leaders for about 2 hours so i didnt get to say good bye to my comp so when the meeting got over the mission pres called me in to his office and sat me down and we set in silence for about a min or so and then he was like elder woodward i need a favor... and i said what would that be pres even though i kind of knew what was coming because the only reason you have a emergency transfer is because you have some fubecas which means slackers and someone has to get taken out of that area so ya he opened the board that has all the areas and missionaries and he showed me my new comp who i had never seen but ive heard about him ha ha but ya turns out my new comp has only hit 4 missionaries in the face while on the mission ha ha i just laughed when pres cooley said that. so hes like i need you to kill him off which means stay with him until he goes home which is jan 7th and then he said one more thing that made me laugh pretty good he said when he swings at you to hit you make sure you duck faster than the other 4 missionaries did ha so ya thats my new comp elder ereias a brazilian but to tell ya the truth we have not had any problems yet pres also said hes on meds because hes bi-polar ha ha so im like waiting for him to just freak out one day but nothings happened yet weve atually been working great together found alot of news and marked a couple more dates so ya things are going good here. i think its funny that pres cooley put him with me im sure if pres would have known me before the mission knowing that i was kind of a hot head theres no way he would have put him with me ha ha but im sure it will be just fine just pray for me that if he hits me i dont kill him after k :) but ya sounds like things are going good at home you guys got any snow yet if you do wanna send some to me i never been this hot in my life this past week has been the hottest week of my mission i think and there saying its just going to get hotter so ya that should just be great because last year this time i was still at home and i spent those two months in the ctm so i havent really past through a summer here yet so ya its going to be a hot one. but its not to bad im getting pretty use to it already ive got a great farmers tan ha ha. but ya about the calling thing i dont know what were going to do i might be doing it from the same house as last time because i was in ouro fino last time i called on mothers day but we´ll see ill let ya guys know next week but ya thats all from me this week tell austin hansen i love him and keep working on that address for me :) thanks love ya guys Elder woodward
hey fam well its been a great week we found an awesome person that going to be baptised on the 20th and weve got a few others that are great to but ya the mission is going good but today i just received bad new and another one that was bad but not at the same time well turns out that my comp elder little is getting emergence transfered tommorrow for who knows why so that really stinks we dont know why yet but we´ll probably find out tommorrow but ya that was the bad news and the other one was news that i knew was coming it just took a while... yep it happened the big DEAR JOHN ha ha i can now count myself among the thousands of other missionaries in the world but ya but its all good we all new it was going to happen and shes happy so thats all that matters. now that the mission has opened my eyes to a whole new world i know that the lord needs me here right now at this moment with everything i have. its weird i feel recharged. but ya thats been my week so tell mom she can start getting a girl set up thats gold ha ha thats taking at least 6 seminary classes that knows her gospel ha but ya i love ya guys let me know of any changes te amo seu filho Elder Woodward
but im glad to stay im still with my old comp whos getting better at portuguese so thats really good but ya things are pretty rough right now this area was on fire not to long ago but now its a little tough were going to start working in another part of the area thats a little bit richer and soo how that goes but ya its been raining alot here its like it will be 90 degrees in the morning and then in the afternoon it justs poors. so sounds like katie beat up some 20 year old chicks ha that made me laugh pretty hard im gona have to look out when i get home because if she was already beating me up when i was home imagine what she would do to me now :) but ya sounds like the wedding went good. are ben and her going to church and everything or are they just living there lives better? but ya i cant believe that the holidays are here already i still havent gotten that package you sent me but it should be getting here soon but ya things are going great things are stressfull but not at the same time because the gospel shouldnt be stressfull. i love ya guys ps. mom try to get adams mission address for me PLEASE te amo cada um de vocês elder woodward
hey fam well im 20 now how weird is that i still dont really believe it. well the baptism went great on sat everything went smooth no problems and we ate alot of cake ha so dont worry i got alot of cake on my bday three different houses gave me cake but ya it was a good week weve been knocking alot of doors latley which has turned out pretty good but we want some new elect people that are ready to be baptised but havent found any yet so ya but we had stake conference this week which was pretty good its alot different than stake conference at home but its still good. me and elder little are still geting along great his portuguses is starting to come along, transfers are coming up on the 26th or the 27th im not sure but im guessing that me and little stay together. but ya thats about it out here nothing really happened this week we did see a little girl get hit by a car but she ended up getting up and running away which was like amazing i though she was dead. but ya how are things at home hows the weather? snowing yet? did you guys end up buying the jeep or what hows the job thing going with dan and darek is dan going to start working with the highway patrol or is he already working and is darek working at that one place speaking jap and what not? well anyways thats about it from here things are still going great let me know if you guys are wanting anything im still good dont need anything at the moment love ya guys talk to ya later Elder Woodward
well im going to be 20 years old i feel like i should be dying thats so old!!!!! i never thought there would be a day when i turned 20 thats nuts. but life could not be better there would not be another place i would want to be right now but on the mission. its nuts i wake up everyday in brazil ha how cool is that and then i get to leave the house and speak a different language and even better than that i get to teach the gospel ha could there be a better place to be?......... i dont think so. me and elder little are getting along great i feel like hes one of my long lost friends i never meet ha but the work is still coming this past week we ended up dropping alot of people because they werent progressing so we ended up knocking tons and tons of doors which ended up pretty good but ya nayma this young single mom weve been teaching since i got in this area is getting baptised this sat on my bday so thats pretty cool. but what else oh ya its pretty much hell on earth here its so hot me and my comp have been dying these past couple weeks but what can ya do its all part of the work right ha but ive givin up on not trying to sweat i just let it go now because its just to hot ha but ya what else happened this week oh ya i saw a miricle this week i saw this little girl get hit by a car like way bad it happened right in front of us i couldnt believe me and my comp were running over there to help but before we got there the little girl just got up and ran to her mom i couldnt believe i thought that see was dead but some how she just walked it off like it was nothing. but ya that was my week here its been pretty good. do you know why austin changed his mission? and tell trav if hes not on a mission before i get home im going to kick his butt ha but ya mom if you could do a favor for me and get adams mission address so i can write him a letter i love ya guys thanks for everything elder woodward
hey fam well its been another good week out here luzia and michele are getting baptised this friday i well if everything goes as planned but you know how the devil works but ya thats going to happen this week and i gave my first talk in sacrament last sunday ha can you believe that i havent givin a talk in the 9 months ive been out here but ya that was awesome i want to do it again i told the bishop that i can do it now anythine he needs it. because i always feel so good after a talk i dont know why i just feel so pumped after but ya that happened this week me and my comp are doing great him and i had a really great experiance with the president this week during our interviews, lets just say that we were put together for a reason, but ya things are going great here were needing another good family to teach i really want to baptise a family so weve been praying alot for that but ya thats about it for this week not much else has happened but ya i hope everythings going good at home, i wouldnt know because no one talks to me ha ha just kidding but i love you guys happy halloween. Elder Woodward
ha looks like our family is just going to be a jeep family ha so i guess ill have to start looking for a jeep when i get home to be welcome in the family ha but for me it dosent really matter because im here ha ha but do what makes you happy that always turns out pretty good :) but ya it was a great week joão paulo was baptised and everything turned out just fine hes way happy now ill have to send you a picture of us, hes really wanting to do some school in utah so if he can some way earn enough money i told him he could live with us for a few months while hes going to school ha so ya dont get rid of the rooms downstairs k but ya the baptism went well and we were able to make or remark another date that fell through because it was really hard to teach her but ya shes one of joão paulos friends that is way excited about baptism were going to baptise her on my bday so that will be pretty sweet i hope it works out all good. and ya remember luzia and michele well were still teaching them and they want to be baptised and weve tried and tried to teach micheles dad but hes not having any of it we taught him last week and he got all made at us and throw a bible at me ha so ya but yesterday we went there and i guess he just got up and left again and this time luzia said shes not going to let him come back and that they want to get baptised the thing that really helped is that we brought luzia and michele to joãos baptism and they really liked it so i think that gave them the extra push that they were needing and we found her a job with another member so i hope all this works out because if she can get this job shell be able to live without depending on anyone so it should be perfect i hope but ya thats the story with them but if everythings works out good theyll get baptised here next week because there all ready we just got to make sure that hes not coming back because she dosent want to marry him so its really hard to help him out when he dosent want to change and they dont want to get married so ya a little complicated but the lord will work it all out the way he wants it. but ya its been a good week my new comp is great hes having some trublw with the language but thats normal hes pretty home sick but ive been making him do alot of work so thats helped him alot but ya life is good and im healthy if your wondering mom i took some good old de worming pills this week that they give us ever six months to kill the worms if we have any ha but ya life is great im loving being a missionary i dont know what its going to be like not being one its going to be a sad day but ya love you guys. oh ya i found this out today cams dad has cancer he olny has a coulple months to live so if you could keep cam in your prayers im sure that would help him alot i love you guys thanks for everything. te amo Elder woodward
well its been a tough week the two baptisms didnt happen! everthing was perfect and the last day they just disapeared we were running all around to find them but we didnt find them but ya its didnt happen i couldnt believe that they would just get up and go like this so ya we went there two different times and we couldnt find them at home but we finally got to talk to them and we found out what happened turns out that micheles dad whos a drunk druged out drop out came back and forced his was in the house and told them there not getting baptised and the problem is the luzia the mom let him in because there out of money and there rent is over due and there out of food so ya he came back and ruined everything. but ive been thinking this past week about all of this and i was way sad that it didnt happen and they werent baptised but i think the lord knew it was not time for them to be baptised because who knows maybe if they were baptised with all this stuff going on maybe they would have became inactive so ya its all good were working with them again were going to mark a new baptism date with them and help them get a new house and a job so she can be free of this man and can live in peace but ya thats what happened with the baptism this week :( but things are still going really good we are having another baptism this week joão paulo is his name hes 18 years old but ya hes way way excited to be baptised yesterday he told me that after he reads the book of mormon its going to seem like any other book in the world wont even compare to the BOM. that really was like the coolest thing to hear but ya hes coming along great he wants to come live with me in the states when i come home so i told him that hes more than welcome and that my mom would love to have you there ha ha but ya im really excited for him and this baptism i bought him a nice book of mormom today at the temple with a bible and everthing so ya. but anyways other news today was transfers................................................................................and.....................i wasnt transfered ha this will be the first time ill stay and my comp will go and my new comp is fresh out of the ctm ha he dosent speak one word of portuguese ha so ya one more good challenge for me i guess but his name is elder little hes from salk lake and turns out i played rugby against him ha small world he played for highland so ya pretty cool huh so thats the news for elder woodward live is amazing i love the mission but times going way to fast it needs to slow down my missions almost half way over january just around the corner :( but ya i love you all keep me updated with dan and the job tell him ill be prayin that he can get on and just news with the family. let me know if you guys are wanting anything from me. thanks for everything. say hi to tom for me and tell him he needs to lose some weight before i get home so that the next time we go skiing i wont kill him again ha love you guys te amo Elder Woodward
well its been another great week conference was amazing its like christmas here on the mission its like what you look forward to the most on the mission ha but yes it was amazing i learned so much the first conference when i get home im going to the conference center but ya conference was really good and were having luzias and micheles baptism this week on sat but it wasnt easy it almost dint happen because micheles dad came back to live with them and luzia and him are not married and hes a drunk drug burn out so ya he stayed there for two days and luzia kicked him out but the problem is that he keeps coming back so they have to live with the door locked all the time but ya hes out of the picture for now and they were interviewed yesterday so ya were way excited for them but her problem now is that she does not have a job and now with micheles dad out of the house they have no way of paying rent so weve been praying and fasting a lot to help her find this job because she is putting all her faith in this and just following what she knows is right and true so ya but i know that they´ll get through all this its been really hard for them but they know that this is the true chruch and that theres nothing thats going to take her off this path now so there fighting though this. but ya the baptism is this sat. joão paulo another person whos going to be baptised not this week but the next hes way excited for it hes 19 years old its weird i feel like im teaching one of my friends because thats just how he is he would fit in just perfectly with all of us hanging out at the dyers house ha but ya hes coming along great hes way excited but ya thats about it here i love you guys i hope that eveythings going along great love you guys Elder Woodward ps ha i have one more thing to ask and thats the book of mormon in english on cd see if you can put it all on a big cd because i want to help my comp learn english and this joão paulo is learning to so if that could be possible just let me know. i love you guys thank you for everything.
hey fam well sounds like everything going good at home the work here is great we found a family this week thats is amazing its a mom and a little girl its the most prepared family ive ever seen in my life im not kidding there way excited to go to church this week and there going to an activity this week. its amazing how the lord throws people in your path we ran into this family looking for someone else we knocked at this one house of clapped at this one house because no one here has door bells and this lady luzia came out and said that no one was home and that she was just working in the house for that lady so we ended up grabbing her address and went to her house the next day she lives in a house the size of my bathroom at home its so sad i guess before this her and her 10 year old daughter were living in the street and were passing through some really tough times but they were able to buy this little shack that they live in now but ya there the most humble people ive meet in my life and there so excited for baptism the little girl thats 10 said the pray the other day and i stated crying ive never heard such a powerful prayer from someone so young in my life after that everyone was crying the spirit was so strong, and yesterday we took the bishop there and he bore an awesome testimony that really helped us alot and now the bishop and us are trying to find her a good job because all shes doing now is working for who ever needs help´in there house cleaning or washing cloths so ya were going to try to find here a new job. but ya thats been amazing this week that we found this family but now i just want to find another one just like it because we teach so many people that dont want anyhting so when you finally teach someone that just eats up your words its amazing it just makes you want to teach more and more but ya, life is good here its so so hot ha this last week i almost died but these past two days it cooled off alot but ya im loving life here the ward is awesome ive got a great bishop here he really loves the missionary work so he helps us a lot but ya i love you guys thanks for everthing. Elder Woodward
fam hey mom you can get up there and get those pants for the fat man but dont give the fatty anything else ha ha. well life is great here the work is pretty dang hard i come home dead everyday i think its been my most tired week of the mission and it dosent help that its starting to get really hot here the city im in right now is like the st george of ut when its 80 in são paulo its 95 100 in sorocaba where im at so ya the weather is hot hot hot but the works going pretty good we found a couple good people last week and a good family yesterday. its been a huge change for me but its been really good because i´ve had to push myself really hard, my comp now is a great kid not kidding i love the kid i´ve never seen someone with so much faith hes been in this area for five months and hes had some really fubeca comps which means slackers but he hasnt lost a step hes still as happy as can be and ready to work. you guys have already seen him hes in the pictures i sent you hes the short funny looking kid with the crazy thick glasses ha and guess how old he is..... hes 26 years old ha can you believe that go back and look at him ha he looks like hes 12 ha but ya hes a great guy hes had a really hard life he lost his parents like two years ago and hes the only member in his family and all his family has big problems with drugs and what not but ya hes in the right spot im glad im with him were going to do alot with each other but ya things are going good ive been able to see a bunch of old friends from my old ward so thats been really nice but ya i´ve got to go i love ya guys get me some of the pics of preston and parker. Elder Woodward ps just tell all the boys that i love them ha thanks mom
fam well its crazy how the lord works ha thats all i have to say me and my comp were certain that he was going to leave because we had a few tips from the top but we usually hear about transfers around 4 on mondays but this time we didnt find out until 1030 at night so they were doing alot of last minute changes but ya guess what?...... i got transfered and turned senior and thats not the crazy part i got transfered back to my old house in ouro fino but now im in an area called julio de mesquita which borders my old area ha i couldnt believe it im right back where i was when i started ha but ya this area is looking pretty rough we dont have any dates and not very many investagators so this is for sure going to be a challenge but my comp is a newb he only has a few months but hes really excited to work so thats what were going to do i think the president is testing me because he saw what me and my old comp did in chora menino so i think hes trying to see if i can do the same thing here. so ya its time to go to work im a little nervous to be senior but really excited because i can work at my own speed so ya its going to be interesting. but ya im glad to be leaving that old house because they still dont have water there i went two weeks without water ha and there still there without water so that was another plus but i was really sad to leave that last area because when we got there we didnt have anything andwe worked our butts off for three months and now that area is growing amazingly so ya that was a bummer, but what can ya do? so im going to try and do the same thing here. but ya i got to see daniel yesterday before i left at the ctm we ate lunch together so that was really cool that i got to do that i got to see jon and daniel ha how awesome is that but ya thats whats going on with me but ive got to go i love ya guys keep me updated with the byu scores ha eu te amo elder woodward
hey fam, well the baby looks good tell mike and katie they did a good job they baked up a good one ha ha but ya thanks for the pictures i got your package today when i went into the office so ya did you say you had two on the way or just one i dont remember but ya things are going really good still transfers are coming up this next weds so im excited to see what happens with that im guessing im going to stay in my area but ya we´ll see what happens. but ya its been a good but horrible week its been good because the work has been great but its been horrible because weve gone 7 days now without water!!!!! 7 days without water im about ready to kill someone weve called like three people to come and fix it but no one knows what the problem is so ya your sons has been stinking it up with three other missionaries all week we ended up stealing water from our neighbor and taking a shower by pooring cold water over our heads ha that was one day and another day we ended up riding a bus for an hour and showering at some other elders house so ya two showers for me in the past week how sweet is that and we still dont have water and im out of cloths ha ha so ya this next week is going to be interesting, but we might be able to move out here in a coulpe days so lets hope that that happens ha but ya other than that its been a great week but ya let me know how you guys are doing hows the baby doing everything k love ya guys. elder woodward
hey fam well its about time that she had the baby ha ya i cant wait to see pictures you´ll have to send them during the week. say congrats to katie and mike again for me. well sounds like its been a pretty exciting week at home with the reunion and the baby thats gona be weird when i come home and preston will be big and parker will be talking hopfully hollie will have one for me to ha ha but ya things are still going great here just the same old same old were working hard and teaching alot this transfers almost over again transfers are on the 3rd so we´ll see what happens with that, but ya daniel welch got to the ctm today so i hope ill be able to see him his mom wrote me an email saying that he got here today so ya i hope ill get to see him that would be awesome but ya the work is amazing here i know ive said that 100 times but it really is we dont have one min between 1100 in the morning until 930 at night to do anything but teach our only problem is that we have a lot of people that are not going to get anywhere so sometimes we end up wasting alot of time so thats been the hardest part out here is deciding who to keep and who to drop for me its been the hardest part because sometimes i dont know if its because i dont have enough faith in that person or if i really need to move on and find someone thats ready so ya ive been worried alot about that the past couple weeks. but other thatn that things here are amazing the past week has been so hot the weather here reminds me of utah spring weather where one day it will be way hot and then the next day it will be way cold so ya things are heating up here now which is no fun but what can ya do its brazil ha ha, but ya things are well with me my dumb tooth is still bothering me every other day or so but ya i love ya guys let me know how the first week goes with the baby eu te amo Elder Woodward
fam, well things are still coming along good we had a baptism set up last week but the heater for the pool wasnt working so were going to baptism him this week. but ya we ended up dropping alot of people this week but its been good we found a few new people and marked dates with them so it was worth it because its horrible when you have to drop people but when you find people that are really ready to hear your message it makes it all better. but ya before i forget our address is parque Peruche Rua(street) Galileia # 413 Sâo paulo so ya cant believe the baby hasnt come yet i bet everyones just dying make sure you get me some pictures. love ya guys say congrats to mike and katie for me. Elder woodward
hey fam, well things are going great here still this week were going to have to drop a ton of investagators because we have way to many people to teach so what were going to have to do is drop everyone thats not progressing which is really frustrating because we have a ton of good people who weve gained a friendship with but there not following through with there commitments so were going to have to drop them because we cant keep wasting time because theres way to many people who are ready to here our message and who are ready to follow through with there commitments because last week we taught over 65 lessons but we only had 6 people in church sunday so were going to have to change something so we can have more people in church so were going to drop some people and start finding new people who are alot stronger, thats the problem here because everyone likes to here about o palavras de Deus (the word of God) so we can teach like crazy but... if your not carefull you´ll just lose alot of time teaching people who wont do anything. so ya thats whats been going on around here my comp and i are getting along great we fight like everyday but its like me and taft or jon would fight with eachother everyday ha i love him hes like the brazilian version of me, just as hard headed or maybe more ha but we work like crazy together so i dont have any complants. but ya mike and katie are having a baby i want pics next week k just send them in a email but ya sounds pretty exciting at home good luck with you talk dad that should be pretty interesting, and i dont know if i heard mom right i think she said she was going to jump out of an airplane ha ha you can do it as long as you´ll do it with me as soon as i get back, dont die alright that wouldnt be very cool ha, oh one other thing dad my miss pres is really interested in your work he wants to know more about it so if you have like and email address or a website i can give to him that would be really nice, but mom the coloring book and everything is a great idea but you dont need to send any more because what i need i can get here like the ctr rings they have them here so ya dont worry to much about that. but ya thats about it from here i love ya guys let me know about the baby next week. Love Elder Woodward
hey fam well i dont have much time to really write anything but things are going great here the area is just getting better and better im really excited to stay here with elder rariclay again one more transfer but ya im doing great i love you guys have a good time at the comp i hope jerursha dose good drive home safe i love ya guys. love elder woodward
well i did it i stayed in one place more than one transfer can you believe it ha im really excited that we get to stay here at least one more transfer together if everything goes right we should be having alot of baptisms this transfer but thats only if everything goes right. but our baptism last week went great we had alot of people there to see it and everything went just perfect her name is madalena an older lady shes about 70 or so. but ya that was pretty awesome. this has been another amazing week weve been teaching like crazy theres just not enough time in the day to get everything done that we want to get done which is a great thing the only time were in the street is when were walking to one house to another ha so i couldnt be in a better situation right now. were looking for a new house right now because the house were in is a joke and with four people its really really small its already small for two people but weve found a coulple that we might move into as soon as we find out how much it is. but ya things are going good im still healthy i think ha ha because im eating things that i never want to find out what it is ha i just say a prayer and hope i dont die. i didnt bring my camera with me today so ill send so pics next week if i have time but ya im doing great good luck at the comp this week let me know how jerusha dose but i love ya guys ill talk to ya next week elder woodward
well family, im living, im healthy and i couldnt be happier im going to cry if they take me out of this area transfers are next weds we find out monday and if me or my comp gets transfered im gona die i think if they left me in this area with this comp my whole mission i would be just fine with that, life is going great were having our first baptism in this area this sat her name is madelena is a 60 year old lady who talks more than anyone i ever met in my life but shes been one of my favorite investagators yet but ya shes getting baptised this week she passed the interview yesterday with flying colors ha and weve got a bounch of others who are coming along great if they keep progressing like they have been we should have a bunch of baptisms coming up. but the works the same theres a ton of it and we never have time we have a street block where we have like ten people were teaching who all pretty much live next door to eachother so during the day were in the street only for like an hour because were always in houses teaching so ya i couldnt ask for more of a blessing the lord is just blessing this area so much its unbelievable but ya. hows life at home without me pretty boring i bet ha ha i love ya guys let me know if anything new happens
hey fam well pres cooley is way sick i guess so we didnt have interviews today so today was our p day and tommrrow we´ll have interviews so ya. but things are going good still the work is awesome we dont have enough time for all of our appointments so what more could you ask for, our biggest problem is that all of our appointments are at night because no one is home during the day so during the day we only teach like 2 lessons but at the night we teach like 8 so at night we pretty much running to every house. but weve got alot of really good people and alot of baptisms lined up in aug so that will be great. , but ya i just got done talking to jon which is so weird i cant believe im here in this area at just the right time with him but ya nothing really new has happened just work work work this has really been the best three weeks of my mission so far but ya i love ya guys let me know if anything new happens Elder Woodward
hey fam, well its been another good week these past two weeks have been the best two weeks of my mission i think. when me and elder rariclay got called to this area everyone was saying good luck and dont get down on yourself out there because its a really tough area but really its been my best working area yet we dont have enough time during the day to go to all our apointments ha the other day we only worked on one street all day and had 10 different lessons, so i dont know why everyone was saying that this was a horrible area because its been awesome im loving it here i told you guys last week that we marked 12 baptism dates in one week ha we couldnt believe it we lost a few of them but monday and yesterday we marked 5 more its really like the lord is throwing people in our way to teach my comp said hes never had an area like this where hes marked so many dates so fast i dont know what it is were being blessed out of control to the point where we cant teach all the people we wanted to teach so ya its been amazing. but ya my comp has been out one year and 6 months hes from parana brasil but ya were getting along really good. but ya the language is still coming i can teach i can comunicate i can do anything i need to do but i cant express myself like i can in english yet so thats where im getting frustrated and i feel like im stuck in a hole with the language like as much as i study i dont get better but then i really look back and see all the things i learned that i didnt know the week before then i feel a little better but ya the language thing is coming good still, i didnt get to see jon this week we were in the city all day my comp had to buy some new pants and i wont see him next week because we have interviews with our new pres next weds so our p day next week will be on thurs. i didnt remember if i told you but we got a new pres this week pres cooley i dont know much about him yet were having zone conference next week so ill find out more then, so ya i wont be able to see jon for two weeks or so but hes doing great from what ive seen hes loving the ctm and his comp so thats always good hes going crazy with the language thing like i was he wants to speak so bad so its really funny when i just rub it in his face ha ha but really his learning really fast he´ll be fine, but ya things here are going great i hope everything at home is going good still let me know of any big news. love ya guys talk to ya next thursday. proximo vez, lembra você ainda tem um filho na missão fubecas. Eu amo vocês elder woodward
hey fam, well it must have been a pretty boring week at home ha ha.... well things are going great here my new area is called chora menino its right next to the ctm like five mins away but ya its been a crazy busy week my new comp is amazing his name is elder rariclay but were working like crazy together this has been the best week of my mission not kidding when we got here the other missionaries left us with one baptism date and two investigators and this week the lord has seriously blessed us like you couldnt believe its like he is throwing people in our path to teach we started this week last wed with 1 date and today we have 11 dates we marked 11 dates this week i couldnt believe it i guess this area is like suppose to be a horrible area but weve only been having great things happen so ya im loving this new area and my new comp.but ya i got to see jon last week right after i sent that email to you guys and i spent a lot of time with him today to so ya how cool is that ill be able to see him every week for the next 6 weeks or so thats awesome i took a picture with him to so ill have to send it to you but ya things are going good here its really cool if you can believe that im going to go buy a jacket this week because i´ve been freezing ha because i dont have anything warm to wear but ya things are going good were teaching like crazy, ha let me know how you guys are doing next week ha ha. mom ariel says your looking amazing keep up the work out program i wanna see a picture ha but i love ya guys ill talk to ya next week. elder woodward
hey fam well my tooth is just fine i dont know what the deal is its like one day it will just start killing and then the next its just fine it hasnt hurt for like two weeks so ya no clue what to do with that but, its been a crazy week today was transfers and to my great suprise again i was transfered ha can you believe it i couldnt i thought for sure i was going to stay in ouro fino with elder lima and if anything he would be transfered because he already had 7 months there so ya but im in my new area now and its right back where i started ha im sitting in the same cafe that i sat in when i was at the ctm ha so thats pretty crazy i just talked to a kid thats in jons district so im gona see jon either today or next week ha how awesome is that, but thats just the half of the story my new comp seems like a great guy but our new area is huge three times the size of my last area and were opening this area so we have no idea about anything so this is goiing to be really hard but im really excited to get started and the elders before us did nothing so we really are starting with scratch and there is no one that did divisions there so theres nobody to show us anything so its going to be really hard but good learning experance for me i think but ya thats been my week i was sad to leave because the work was really going good there we marked two more dates this week with two sisters and we had three others that were really strong so ya i was a little upset to leave but this will be another start for me with a lot of new things to learn, our new house is tiny and we have four people living there to so ya the house was a for sure down grade but what can ya do ha ha but ya i think thats about it this is going to be a crazy week so i let you know how it goes i love ya guys hope everythings going good at home talk to ya next week. elder woodward
hey fam well the tooth thing is strange two days ago i just wanted to rip it out because it hurt so bad but then the next day its just fine so i dont know what the deal is and the last time i went to the dentist here they looked at me like i was crazy and told me nothing was wrong with it ha ha so ya its not like a cold sensitive feeling it feels like my tooth is dying ha so i havent heard back from sis bertasso yet so i dont know what the plan is it dosent hurt right now its fine so i dont know know if i want to go waste that money so ya i dont know what the problem is it will kill way bad for like a day and then just go away so who knows if anything happens im sure sis bertasso will call you but the pres and his wife are ending there mission on the 25th so if im going to do anything it will need to be before then because the new one will be crazy busy when they get here so ya thats the story on my teeth. make sure you slap the dentist for me ha ha. well things are going good the baptism went great i sent pictures to ariel i still havent made that cd for you guys i wait a little longer until i have more pics but the baptism was really good and really cold the heater broke so we did it in really cold water which was nice for me but everyone else was dying ha but ya lots of good things we marked three more dates this week to with a family the mom was already baptised 14 years ago but shes in active now so we need to activate her first before we baptise her kids but she been telling us that she really wants to come back to the church and raise her family in the church and her extented family are all great members so thats going to help alot to so ya thats whats been happening here things are still going great this transfer is over on the 18th so we´ll see if i stay here again or go but ya i love ya guys let me know if anything else happens elder woodward
hey fam, well its been another great week here were having two baptisms this week well hopefully there having there interview tonight but im certain there going to pass just fine, but it wasnt that way eariler this week we went over to there house two days ago and marcos thats the name of the guy were teaching his wifes name is pamela but anyways she was gone at her parents house so we started talking to marcos about the wedding and the baptism because there getting married on thursday and baptised on sat so when we started talking about it he told us that him and pamela didnt think they were going to follow through with the wedding because they´ve been fighting a lot and they didnt have money or there own house, so we sat and talked with him for about and hour and a half about there problems and how they can fix these things and it went over really good he got really emotional on us and things just started making sense for him we helped him realize blessings he had recieved once he started taking the lessons and going to church and we explained that the devil knows that hes on the right path and hes going to do everything he can to put doubts and fear in his mind the closer it got to th baptism and wedding after all of this he told us that he would talk with pamela again about it all the next day. so the next day we called him to see how it went and he told us that she wanted to go though with it to so we taught them again that night again together and it was great way spiritual so im pretty sure the interview tonight will go great there ready. but it really was a miracle me and my comp have been praying hard for them this past week and we´ve really seen a change so thats been an amazing blessing. but ya thats been our week last week we taught almost 50 lessons but out of those 50 we didnt get any baptism dates and only about 10 were willing to hear us again so the work is really frustrating but great at the same time because im able to get alot of practice with tons of different people but at the same time its really sad that so many people are so hard hearted but ya its been a great week, but thats awesome that united made it to phill but ya hows everything else good let me know if anything interesting happens, has katie had the baby yet or what ha ha well thats it from here love ya guys Elder woodward
hey fam, so you guys had a fire how did that happen did you guys lose anything? let me know how that went. well things are still going good out here you wanted to know how my day goes well we wake up at 630 and i usually take a shower get ready and if im not to lazy ill make something to eat but i usually dont because we have really big lunches but ya personal study starts at 800 but if im done getting ready before then i usually read the bom but at this new house i havent done that as much because we have four people living with us so you have to like wait to use the shower and stuff but ya we have personal at 8 and comp at 9 then its language at 10 so we leave the house at about 1130 and everyday a member makes lunch for us so thats really nice because they always make a ton of food really good food to this new area is a lot richer than my first so we always eat good lunches but ya lunch is at 12 so were usually there until 100 115 and thats when the day really starts we usually have 15 appointments set up because only about half of them will actually happen so ya its just teaching all day and walking back and forth and if we run out of appointments we just do contacts so ya we do that until 900 915 then we go home plan for the next day and then i pass out cause im usually wasted at the end of the day, our area here is like all hills so its just up and down all day so ya thats my normal day. but its been another great week weve found a lot of new people but no one really strong its really easy to find new people and teach a lesson but thats about all they want we had this one person we taught who knew that the book of mormon was true and that joseph smith was a true prophet and that our church is the one and only true church but they didnt want to change there church ha we were like what are you kidding you know all of this you got an answer in your prayers that all this is true but you dont what to goin our church? and she was like yep. so ya that gives you and idea about how some of the teaching goes but thats just one person were teaching alot that are coming along really well were gona have two baptisms not this sat but the next there a younger couple i already talked about them in my last letter but ya there still doing really good there really excited to get baptised. there dedicating a temple curitiba this sunday so we get to see that so thats pretty exciting and this transfers already half over ha i cant believe time seems like it just keeps going faster and faster so ya thats my week its been pretty good me and my comp are getting along great hes awesome we have alot of fun with each other so that really good but ya thats about it from me. hows the rugby team doing, and the horse stuff coming and ariel says moms looking really good ha thats awesome keep it up with that program ha which im sure you will. but hey whenever you do send a package make sure you send deoderant good kind ha i dont think they really believe in that here ha ha but other than that im not in need of really anything. well thats all for this week i love you all talk to ya soon eu te amo. Elder Woodward
hey, fam well its been a good week again its been cold for about three weeks and cold is the low 70s here but its starting to get hot again ha ha the heat is never ending here but ya its been a good week weve found alot of new people its really easy to teach a first lesson almost everyone will at least hear what we have to say but to get a second lesson is difficult and most of the time we we do get a second lesson there still very week so you have to keep working and working with them and then you find the ones that get that spark and as soon as we get that with them we just run with it and keep on them we almost teach them everyday because satan is working really hard on the people here so you have to keep helping them feel the spirit everyday so satan cant get a hold of them and they can build that testimony this monday we knocked on a door of this investigator who dosent have that much interest and her neighbor who lives above her answered the door so we ended up teaching her the first lesson which went over really good the spirit was really strong so we marked to come back the next day so the next day she didnt read the book of mormon so we read it with her we read alma 7 after that she just went off with the questions about why bad things happen to good people and why do men sin more than girls ha it was kind of funny they were like questions in general but because of this we got to know her alot better, so it turns out that her husband was murdered a few years ago and its been really hard on her these past years she has a daughter whos 12 years old but she really opened up to us and just dumped her problems on us, but it was really good shes showing alot of interest so were going back there again tonight and were having a family night thing with her at a members house on sat so hopefully this all goes good and like everyone we teach she has a problem with being baptised because everyone here has already been baptised so everytime we invite them to be baptised there like well i dont need to because i already was baptised so ya we work alot with that out here. so thats the story out here were teaching about 10 other new people right now to we find about 4 to 5 new each day but only go back to teach again to 1 or 2 of them but ya its been a good week the portuguese is coming along great now the first week was really hard but now its getting easier and easier im able to understand pretty much everything but i still get stuck a lot when i try to talk its alot harder for me to speak than it is to understand but having this brazilian comp is helping alot so hopefully by the end of this transfer i should be speaking really good but ya my district we have 3 americans and 3 brazilians the district leader is an american who lives in the same house as us with a new brazilian comp. but ya we have district meeting every week on monday in trujillo which is about an hour away by bus. so ya thats whats going on with me. so sounds like you guys had a lot of fun in moab and hope oak is doing alright, has katie had that baby yet ha ha right now were teaching this couple there baptism dates on the 7th but ya there a young couple hes 23 and shes 19 and shes four months pregnant so its kind of teaching them because it reminds me of mike and katie only difference is that she already has one kid 4 years old ha ha so ya just a little different. well guys thats about it for this week so ill talk to next weds i love ya.
hey fam, well lets see in the past three days nothing really new has happened ha. you guys all know whats going on, i didnt really get to talk to dad because the phone call got cut off, so that was a bummer. but i need to get that address for that guy here because if i dont get it for him he might never get it and it would be really cool for that missionary to see what came from that one baptism so ya if you could get his address and phone number that will be awesome i dont have his address with me right now but his name is joão rodigues filho and it was in the Trujillo ward on april 26 1996 so ya see what you can do with that. but ya things here are really good we have those three people with dates two of them are still coming along really strong there names are marcos and pamela they just set there date to get married on the 5th and there baptism is on the 7th which is really amazing because to get married in brazil its really expensive and if you want to get married for free you have to wait on a list for like a year but some how they got bumped up on the list and were able to get a date way fast so talk about a blessing so ya there coming along really good marcos is 23 and pamela is 19 and three months pregnant i think thats how you spell its grávida in portuguess but ya there way awesome the other person were teaching name is viviane she has some family problems she lives alone sperated with three kids in a house smaller than my room so we have been just trying to help her with anything, she really likes us and what we teach she reads the book of mormon every day, she just needs to work out some family stuff first but the way she´s progressing everything should work out just fine. so ya thats the news from here everythings still going great. oh by the way katie knows i was not mean to her on the phone ask her to tell you the truth she´ll tell you i was nice. well thats it i think i love ya guys ill talk to ya next week. Elder woodward Eu Te Amo.
hey fam, well its been an interesting week its been awesome cristianes baptism went great by the way ha mom would have died if she saw me i sung a solo ha ha ya a solo it was pretty cool but ya shes been coming to church and seminary to so shes staying really strong its awesome. anibal is having his baptism this sat but im not going to be there because i got transfered today i couldnt believe it elder siepel thought this whole time that he was leaving for sure but to our suprise i was. im still in sorocaba its called ouro lino so something like that im not quite sure yet my new comp is a brazilian who dosent speak one word of english ha ha so thats gona be great our area here is about 10 times the size of são bento so lots of changes for me im way excited but sad at the same time i really liked são bento yesterday i had to say good bye to everyone which was all fine until we went to cristianes house for dinner and we did like a family night thing with some other members when it was time to leave me and elder seipel sung God be with you till we meet again and cristiane lost it and started crying ha leaving areas is no fun i´ve decided and i was only here for one transfer i cant imagine how hard it will be to leave and area i´ve been in for a long time. but im really excited to start the work here i have a feeling im going to be here a while i dont know why i just do. so thats been the week your going to have to call a new number now for mothers day 0115515-97003154 and what will probably happen is ill give you another number of a member and you call that one we dont know who now but we will or well just use the cell phone im not sure yet so just call this number around 430 my time dad should be able to figure that out. my comps talking to his family at 300 so that should work out i hope that all works out with the time and everything, but thats the week here ill can tell you whatever else on sunday so ya talk to ya then love ya.
hey fam well the card came so you can activate it now and i think i gave you the wrong scripture i think i said hel 12 5 but its really hel 5 12 so try to fix that if you can because hel 12 5 talks about something else i dont even remember but ya for calling home we dont get to call you this mothers day they said we had to wait until christmas im not sure why ha just kiddin but you guys need to call me im not sure if its going to be on our cell phone or a members house i should know next week i think but ya. well its been a good week were baptising cristiani this sat so thats going to be great shes really excited, monday i went on a division because the district leader had to come here to interview cristiani so i went to another area which is pretty close but ya my comp was a brazilian who had only been out for about a month longer than me but ya he didnt speak and english so it was awesome i was able to learn alot so ya and it was nice to see another area to. but the works going good the language is still pretty rough but its coming along more and more everyday grandma sent me an email wanting to know if i could email them so i thought it would be alot easier if you guys just forwarded our email to them so they can know whats going on but ya thats the story this week just been working hard transfers are coming up i cant believe it i´ve already been out three months its cray how time flys out here. well i hope everythings still going good at home i love ya guys talk to ya next week. and tell mom ill try to be healthy i pray that every meal that i eat wont kill me ha ha because sometimes im not sure they have this meal that they make here called feigada and its beans with every part of the pig everything the eyes, feet, ears the only thing you dont eat is the bones ha so ya thats a little different im having it for my first time later this week i guess its like a big honor to have someone prepare it for you it means they really like you so ya we´ll see how that goes. love ya guys.
hey fam well things are still going good here yesterday it was like 70 degrees with a wind, it was so nice my first break from the sun but my teeth are doing fine they havent hurt since last week so no worries i dont know what it was but its all good now so ya but no i still havent got the card yet but i might get it this friday when the pres comes down here to do a mission conference so ill let ya know next week if i´ve gotten it yet. and for the scripture i really like Hel 12:5 so you can put that one on there. and im pretty sure that calling you cell phone will be just fine but knowing mom she wont answer ha ha so should i call dads phone instead or moms? and the bishops name is joâo and i dont know his last name everyone goes by there first name here because almost everyone has the same last name either da silva, silva , santos, costa ,or lima so ill have to find that out but he didnt live in são paulo north mission back then so ill find that all out for next week but it was about 13 years ago. is it the same tadje that was in out ward? well this week like i said has been good no one was shot so thats always good but weve been working alot and we were going to have a baptism this week but she did go to church because of some emergency with her dad or somthing so we had to move her date to the 26th which is fine so on the 26th we should have two baptisms anibal whos about 50 and cristiani whos about 15 or 16 so that will be really good and then on the 3 of may we have two more a mom and her son so things are looking really good out here we have about three other people me taught this week who were really interested so its going to be exciting to see what happens next week it seems for like every ten or so people we teach we only get one or maybe two that want to hear more so its really frustrating but good at the same time. the language is coming depending one the person were talking to i can pretty much understand everything but some people i have no idea what there saying ha i wont catch one work just cause they talk so fast but ya its coming. well thats about it from here transfers are on the 7th and my comp has been here for about 8 months so he thinks he´s going to be transfered but you never know i guess i hope i get to stay here a long time this is a great place i love the people and the ward members are amazing so ya i would be fine if i was here a while. but ya thats about it. oh ya hollie needs to bare her testimony next fast sunday so tell her i still remember the deal we made and shes not getting out of it so ill be waiting to here how it went in a couple weeks. but ya i love ya guys talk to ya next week
hello fam well sounds like everything is going good at home thats good i cant believe its still snowing meanwhile im still dying of heat out here ha its so hot always and you think you get away from it in houses but the houses act as ovens its like just as hot in the houses with no wind so its worse, i need to thank the guys at mr mac for giving me those hankerceifes i think thats how you spell it i think my spelling is getting worse i try to spell as if im saying it in portuguese ha but ya i wipe my face with that before i got into houses so i dont look like im dying all the time so ya remember when i said when would i ever use this ha well i know why now ha ha well its been a good week but a really painful one the two teeth that were hurting before i came out here the same ones that were worked on were killing fri sat and sun i thought i was going to pass out cause i hurt so bad the only thing i could compare it to was my shoulder surgerys it hurt that bad and i have no idea what started it but we went to a dentist which was pretty scary i felt like i was going to need shots from sitting on the chair but he looked at them for about fifteen sec and said that there was nothing wrong ha so that shows you about how good the dentists are here so i had him take and x ray to to see if it was a canal thing but of course nothing according to him was wrong again so i called the pres wife and she gave me a list of meds to buy because i guess other missionaries have had this same kind of thing where the dentist said there was nothing wrong so i´ve been taking those and my comp gave me a blessing and its been really good the past two days the pain has gona away its just sensetive now but its getting better each day so no worries im just glad it was on the days that we had conference because i was sitting down and not walking around everywhere so that was a blessing but dont worry everything is fine if it gets any worse sister bertasso might call you and get some advice from our dentist but i dont think that will happen because its doing fine right now. but anyways how about conference that was the best conference i´ve ever seen i dont know if it was cause im on a mission now and i wasnt sleeping through it but i loved it it was way powerful, well work wise it was a slower week because we went to são paulo for interviews which were really good pres bertasso is an amazing person i´ve already learned so much from him, and then we had conference so ya that was three days where we were not able to get alot done but the other days were really good next week we have a baptism but were not sure if its going to happen because she needs a stronger testimony shes really nervous about it so we might move it back a week or two untel she can get that answer and testimony and on the 26 we have a man hes name is anibal hes about 50 or so years old but hes ready and really excited to be baptised last week we taught him the word of wisdom and he commited to keeping it so he just handed us all his coffie and beer ha ha it was pretty funny but awesome so we walked down two houses and dumpped it all but thats how commited he is its awesome weve been teaching him for about three weeks and hes pretty much read the whole book of mormon so ya that was really good i love this area the members here are awesome theres only about 80 of them but i love them and they love messin with me because i speak horrible portuguese ha so we have alot of fun they teach me new words all the time its really funny but they cant talk about me really anymore because i can pretty much understand everything i just have a really hard saying what i want thats my problem right now but it will come. dad that road your talking about sounds just like it so your right but we dont live down ther and im not really sure which way is east or west or north ha im lost here with out my mountians to show me which way is north but ya that place with the dirt road is são bento dois our house is just up the road by a really big catholic church. and i havent recived my card yet but i havent gotten any mail since i´ve gotten out here so im sure its almost here or its here already. well thats about it its been a good week im excited for this upcomming one it should be a good one. but ya make sure ariel gets to read this her mail should be getting there next week or so but ya love ya guys talk to ya soon
well fam its been a different week compared to the weeks at the ctm when i got called to são paulo i never thought i would be serving in a place like this ha its about as far away from the big city life as you can get i love it though its a really layed back city my city is called são bento its not sorocaba its right by it though and its just me and my compainion in this area which covers a lot of space so all we do is walk walk walk ha im pretty sure i´ve lost five pounds this week i came on the mission wearing my belt on the last hole now im almost wearing it on the fourth one ha ha but our appartment is pretty small bedroom kitchen bathroom study room, oh ya i had wash everything by hand ha so mom should be pretty proud of me im a big boy now i wash my shirts with my hands lol. k dad if you read this before mom erase it lol there is this area called são bento dois its just down the road its part of our area well anyways its a pretty poor area with alot of drug problems but it also has alot of good people so we usually spend most of our time down the well this week since i got here five guys were shot and killed ha pretty crazy one happened about five mins before we walked down there and another happened while we were at a members house so we had to stay there for a while ha no worries they leave the missionarys alone its only between the addicts that run out of drug money so ha ya its been a different week its been really good though lots of great members here our ward is about 80 people or so not that big we have a great bishop oh that reminds me 13 years ago our bishop was baptised by and eric tadje who lived in alpine so he really wants to know if it really is him so ask the tadje family if they have a son that served 13 years ago in são bento and if he did get an address for me so he can get in touch with him again. well it snowed again wow well meanwhile ive been pretty much sweating to death ha its so hot here and its always hot you never get away from the heat but i love it everything here is good. k well my comp hes name is elder seipel hes been out for about a year and 8 months well were getting along really well but hes a little lazy and i find myself having to push him instead of what i thought it would be like, me trying to keep up but dont get me wrong he´s a great guy i would just do thing a little different if i could speak the language and knew the people and the area but that will all come in good time. were going to são paulo tommorrow to have interviews with the pres i guess after the first week all the new missionaries go in for an interview just to see how things are going so that will be good it takes about three or four hours to get there so some pretty long bus rides ha. well the work is going really good this week we got three new investagators with baptism dates and i guess in the past year there has not been one baptism here so this is really good and if things go good we should have another one this week to so hopfully four baptisms by the end of this month which would be amazing. well you wanted to know our address its, roberto florio santana 134. so you can go ahead and look that up see if it works on the other side of the street is the church its just a really big rented out house that they turned into a church well thats about it ill email you guys when i get my card which might be tommrrow when i go to the mission home oh ya thats another thing we dont have a post office or bank here so we have to go into sorocaba to do all of that which is about every monday when we have district meetings and i think we have about six people in our district. k well thats about it from here hope things are going good at home. well i love ya guys talk to ya next week.
hey fam well its been another great week this week we went out contacting again which was amazing know how last time i told you there was like 1000 people everywhere there was four times as many this time we went to the subway station where it was crazy busy people everywhere you really had to like run them down to stop them but it was really good i felt a lot mosr comfortable this time i was rejected alot more this time than last but at the same time i gave out like twice as many cards because there were like so many people it was crazy so ya that was really fun this week. k story time i hav e this brazilian roomate his name is elder nascimento well last week i just found out some crazy stuff that happened to him i guess on his way to the mtc he was at a bus stop with all his bags and stuff when a guy pulled a gun on him and took all his money his camera everything he had pretty much and then three days after he had been in the ctm he meet with the president who had him call his mom because his dad died of a heart attach that morning he was in our room during all of this happening and i did find it out until last week form his companion i never once noticed a change in him i dont think i ever saw him not smiling k if there has ever been a better example of faith in my life that was it i couldnt believe it how willing he was to serve. they left today for the field so last night we gave him a blessing which was really powerful, the brazilians are amazing the ones that are out here for the right reason are so storng i learned alot about myself this week my faith has been built up so much by this one elder it made me realize how little faith i had because i dont know what i would do if that happened to me so i am very thankful for grat examles like elder nascimento. well you wanted to know what we do on p days we go out to the temple then come back wright letters and email then we walk around the neighborhood which is huge and look for some thing good to eat because the food inside is horrible ha then we go back and usualuly study. and i pretty sure dad that we get set up with brazilians for our first time out so ya im gona have fun with that. the language is coming not as fast as i want but its still coming im able to understand what people are saying most the time i just have a hard time talking back ha ha well thats about it for this week so ill talk to ya guys a little later.
hey fam well its been another week that seems like it lasted a day i really have no hold on time out here it seems like i wake up and then twentey mins later im asleep again ha its crazy but i love the ctm like i really truly do. Elder Hinckley came and talked to us this week which was awesome he just talked to us about his fathers last week here on earth its was pretty spiritual. we also went to the police station this week and got our finger prints taken i ran into this elder who was in são paulo north mission so i started talking to him and i thought he was a brazilian but he look american i found out that he was from utah but i didnt believe him because his acent was so bad ha im not kidding he couldnt speak english it was pretty funny so hopefully next time you guys here my voice hopefully ill sound like a brazilian ha i hope at least but you wanted to know if we get out at all well last week we got out twice once for temple and once for the police so ya we get to see alot and plus were able to walk all around the ctm like pretty far so thats what we did last week so its not like your trapped in here so its not bad. the language is comming alone at times i think ha im just having a really hard time with all the gramar but i´ve been working really hard on that this week so ya were going out proselyting again this friday im way excited for that its going to be amazing i just hope that this time ill be able to answer some mosr questions for them ha and they wont just stare at me wondering what in the world is he saying ha ha. but yes mom i have felt blessed out here i´ve never felt more comfort in my life i see other eldes getting really down because of the language and im in the same boat with the language and i never feel alone i know as long as i work my tail off i can learn this language any time i feel a litte down all i have to do is say a little prayer and its all gone just like that so yes i´ve felt really blessed out here, but the language is really hard but it will come i just think to myself come on jake derek and mike learned a lot harder language than me ha ha so thats always comforting because of course if they could do it so could i ha ha just messin. but ya thats about it from here anything new from home i bet its pretty lame with out me there tell the fatty that he needs to lose some weight tell him he needs to lose as much as i do im not starving well... not really anyways ha i left home weighing 215 and yesterday i weighed 205 so ya tell him ten pounds ha ha. i never got the report on grandpa how is he? and no president gunn has not said anything else about the project would you like me tell him something? well i love you guys hope everything is going good talk to ya soon. oh see if you can find out where hunter got his mission call i heard he got it but they didint tell me in the email so ya hes the big hairy guy if your forgot who he is
well i remember saying that as soon as i left it would be like the best winter ever ha ha i guess i was right. but this week has been amazing friday when we went proselyting it was crazy ha to me it felt like for the first time that i was really on a misson it was a great experiance i was just standing on a street corner all by myself with thousands of people around me and for the first time i really truely felt like i was on my mission i was about to really go out and teach someone about the church ha it was an awesome feeling kinda like warming up for a rugby game but ten times better. k so after getting myself all pumped up to go talk to someone the first guy i walked up to was a member ha ha what were the odds out of the thousands of of people all around me the first one i talk to was a member and an old teacher at the CTM so i thought that was really funny so after that i just started talking to everyone one after another i would get done talking to one guy then i would just grab the guy behind him and try to comunicate in portuguese ha ha which is prett funny i think they were thinking to themselves what in the world is this kid saying ha but either way it was awesome they gave us about 30 cards each and a book of mormon we gave them all out in like the first hour so the rest of the time we just talked to whoever and bore our testimonies so ya brazil is awesome i love it here the weather here could not be better it rains everyday no matter what ha its crazy sunday night we had a storm and ive never seen so much rain in my life the streets were all rivers. thats about it for this week its been a great one tues is my half way mark how crazy is that it still feels like i just got here. oh if your going to send anything out here check out the web site skylinedeliveries.com i think they get it out here in like two days. but ya i love you guys i hope everythings going good do we know if there having a boy or a girl yet? k i love you guys talk to ya later Elder Woodward
hey guys, well everything here is still fine im sitting in this hot box ha it really is like 100 degrees plus humidity ha this has been the hottest day yet .i cant believe jon is coming here i really cant believe that i just jumped out of my seat and told everyone around me that my three best friends are all here i brazil ha the lord must freally have a purpose for us alpine boys ha thats so crazy but this week has been the fastest week weve had yet and that kind of worries me because i still dont know what the natives are ever saying but all is well i know it will come as long as i keep working hard, but were going out this friday to go proselyting ha that going to be awesome im so excited ha i just dont know what im going to do when some one askes me a question ha ha but its going to be good no matter what. but ya thers a couple three somes around but im glad i wouldnt have it any other way oh ya im the district leader by the way thats going pretty good i talked to my branch pres sunday he sat down and talk to me at lunch said that i had a wonderful family and that he was going to find some other people to give those packages that you gave him. ya and we meet with our pres this week him and his wife seem like really nice people but i guess there getting released in june so ill only have them for a little while so thats kind of a bummer
Hey fam so sounds like theres quite alot going on at home, i cant believe its snowing that much ha a little different than here its like 90 right now and im sweating to death in this little cafe ha talk about two different worlds. but everything here is awesome i love Brazil but there is one thing i miss and thats some real food the ctm food here is noa bon ha im preaty sure i´ve already lost five pounds all i eat is PB and jelly for like every meal but everything else i love my companions are awesome elder hooper and i workin way hard elder wadsworht is comin along but at times is not as motivated my teachers are great its kind of hard cause they dont speak very good english so some of the time its like a guessing game but its still comming along great. i wish i would have payed more attention in english i thing that would have made portuguese a little easier but oh well the language is slow but im getting better every day so i guess thats good ha i still have no idea what there talking about when they speak but i know it will come. ya i told him about your project and he jumped all over it so i hope that went over good ill have to talk to him when he gets back this week Hes a great guy i´ve only talked to him a couple times but he seems like a really nice guy, thats about it from here time really dose fly it feels like i just got here so hopfully it keeps going fast because i want get out there ha k well i love you guys i hope Grandpas doing ok let me know about that k. but ya we were able to watch the funeral here very sad but good at the same time ya know they keept us pretty updated out here. well i talk to you guys net week k love you all. go Giants ha ha
Hey family, so when was someone gona tell me that this was going go be hard work ha just kidding its awesome here i love brazil its been amazing i love the weather here it really couldnt be better. your gona get a letter from me soon you might have already got it but im in a three some with elder Wadsworth and Elder Hooper there both way awesome very hard workers so thats always good. so i dint know learning a new language was going to be so hard ha im learning alot though its crazy how much you can learn in a week i can pray and testify in portugese so its moving along pretty fast its way hard though i have no idea how im gona be able to talk to anyone were going contacting for the first time on the 15th so we´ll see how that goes, but our second day here Russel M Neilson came and talked to us which was amazing i guess this is the first time an apostle has talked down here in over a year so what a good day to come on. We just got back from the Campinas tempel which was very pretty i liked that tempel alot but hmmm what else ha i dont think there´s really anything else to tell ya im doin fine i love Brazil its an awesome Place i hope everything at home is good tell D to lose some weight ha ha and has katie had her baby yet or what? ha i love you guys and mom will you tell ariel that she has mail on the way so she dosent feel so left out she should have it in about a week or so. i love ya guys talk to ya soon Elder Woodward