Hola from Peru!

Hola! Thanks for all the cards and letters , glad to see everyone still cares about me :)

Its like a cycle here, I feel really terrible after P-days are over and every P-day when I email you i feel great! It was an up and down week again. Last saturday we were able to go out and spend some time teaching less active members. We paired up with two missionaries that have been out for 2 years and went and taught an old lady in her garage- it was intense. She asked if i would give the opening prayer and then I taught a short little bit on faith. It was pretty cool and I understood a lot of what she said so it was re assuring. But then we went to another appointment with an older lady without any teeth. and I guess she is from the Sierra so I'll be honest, i didnt understand a word she said haha. But i bore my testimony and it was all good. Its so poor here. There is garbage everywhere. I tried to see if i could send home my videos over an email so let me know how it works and if you get it. there are some pretty random ones. hope you like them though. There are dogs everyhwere and when we went out to teach the bus just dropped us off in front of this park. Instead of basketball hoops there was a soccer field. haha I never thought i would see pick up soccer games going on. Its just like in the US when a bunch of old guys go to the park or something and play basketball but they were having a legit soccer game. At one point all of the guys that drive around "combis" or the small buses that we catch a ride in some time, like 6 of them pulled up in their busses, hopped out and started playing together and then afterwards all went home. it was pretty awesome. No tracting this weekend because of conference but im really excited to listen, and we went out today for p day anyways. It was fun and as usual the temple was great. The food here has gotten a whole lot better. The new mtc president took over after the last mission pres passed away about a week before we got here and he has been doing a lot to change everything around. It used to be just chicken and rice but now they have mixed it up and gotten beef and other things. Ill live. Hey mom, if you can try and find out my line of authority that'd be great. I just want to have it because someone made a good point that if i confer the priesthood to someone down here then they may want their line of authority and so i should be able to give it to them if they want it.

Tell Kyle nice work in Provo and that I hope he gets his Visa soon. Its a whole new world down here in South America but i hope he can get sown here soon. Oh and tell Scotty and T scof hi for me too. Still no word on my district. They are hoping they can get down here next week but if they dont get down here next wednesday i dont think they will come to this MTC.

We were at the store today for P day and we went into the TV section and the Steelers were playing the colts on TV. It was 20 to 20 with 2 minutes left and we walked away. You better be proud of me cuz it was tough! I hope everything is good at home. this was an insanely long email but i loved it. Im not sure how much time I'lll regularly have but ill try to respond as much as i can. I' ll also try and send a few pictures home each week. Thanks for all of the love and support from home.Th mail system here sucks. We get letters every Pday but they usually dont arrive in the mail until Thursdays so we dont get them until the next wednesday and then when we send mail out it doesnt get sent out until the next monday. and then it takes like a week to get there. So needless to say it takes FOOOREVER. Sorry. Its really great to hear that you all are doing so great. Glad that everyone is staying stong and keeping the faith. I can honestly testify that it brings nothing but happiness and blessings into our life.

Miss you all so much
i know that this gospel is true. being out here doing the lords work simplifies it so much. Its all in our pupose. all we have to do is come unto christ in faith, repent, be baptized, listen to the holy ghost, and endure to the end. Its that simple. I love to share it and i know that eventually, some time way off in the future, ill be able to share it in spanish ahaha.
I love you all and miss you a lot but im right where i need to be.
Love,

Elder Woodburn

Heading for Peru!

It's P-Day and I'm doing laundry again. I cant believe that I will be leaving tomorrow for Peru. It seems so surreal. It really is too bad that no one from my district is coming with but im sure it'll be okay. It'll just force me to get to know more people and to speak spanish. That's the biggest thing im worried and excited about right now. It's scary to go to a place where they speak only spanish when i speak barely any spanish, but i know that as im forced to speak it all day every day it will come along much faster and itll come more naturally. so im very blessed to be able to go down to the Lima MTC. I'm still holding out hope that ill be fluent when i leave there in 6 weeks ;) but it'll be a challenge.

This week has been pretty much the same as always, just going through the schedule and learning as much as i can. Everyone always says that after 2 weeks you start to level off in your ability to learn the language because the original excitemnet wears off about then. So from then on its up to you and your desire to push yourself to learn. I definitely felt that this week. I dont feel like i learned nearly as much as the other two weeks so I hope that going to Peru will push me.

I cant wait to talk on the phone tomorrow! Im gonnna have to force my companions to get up at like 5:30 am and take me to the curb until i get re assigned a new companion which i feel kinda bad about -but thats okay. Then it will just be the two of them. Im pretty sure im going to have to start teaching people and offering them pass along cards in the airport so I guess that will be my first legitimate contacting. pretty cool to think about.

I have been getting quite a few letters from everyone the past few days so thanks a lot for that :) Meg sent me one that I got yesterday and I couldnt help but laugh when I got it. You'll have to ask her about it but she decorated it pretty well :) its definitely something she would do and it reminded me of everyone. it was a good pick me up! Im not gonna get any dear elders before i leave so sorry to anyone who sent them, hopefully they can forward them down to me at the Peru MTc later. I got the package with the shirt in it mom, thanks a lot. oh and the card and tide pen too. thanks i needed those. The shirt is pretty odd fitting but i wore it to the temple today and it worked well enough. The sleeves are just too short which is weird for a large shirt but oh well. :) thanks! I got a nice cheap watch at the bookstore for like 10 bucks which hopefully no one will want to steal from me. Im gonna send my fossil watch back home in a package before i head out. Im also gonna put my patriarchal blessing in there too, I made a copy of it so this way i wont lose the orginal.

Its good to hear that Konnor's ordination went so well, he probably had more people at his than i had at my farewell ;) Tell James that I hope he liked the talk by Dallin H. Oaks, but there's no doubt in my mind that Elder Holland was better haha.

Thanks for the package Alli :) I just opened it right before sending this! LOVE the pictures :) I really needed them ive been missing out. The shirt is awesome too. everyone tried to steal it from me but then I told em that Will and I need to match ;) Tell your dad sorry that Im not there to talk about football with but from what ive heard about the steelers game on sunday...I should be glad im not lol. thats alright, they're still alive.

I hope everything is going well at home as always. Keep me updated! cant wait to hear from you and talk to you tomorrow. I know this Gospel is true with every ounce of my soul, I cant believe im heading to Peru tomorrow but I know its where I need to be. Im just thankful that I'm not in Arizona with Alec or Megan :) Let everyone know that I love and miss them.

Adios!

Elder Woodburn

Pics from the MTC

Hola Amigos!

Hey there!
Its good to hear from you all again! Thanks for all of the mail and packages over the last week. Now that the first week is over its hard to remember what has gone on since i last wrote, it all starts to run together. But i think i wrote tuesday morning and that night we went to the temple which was awesome and then we had a devotional, everyone kept saying that there was a good chance that a general authority was gonna come because there hadnt been one since July. We had to wait to get in but we got great seats and Elder Jeffery R Holland of the 12 came and spoke to us. It was AMAZING. earlier in the week we had listened to a talk that he gave years ago at the MTC about how he absolutely loved his mission and it changed him and how we have such a great opp to change our lifes if we work hard. He basically said that same thing but he said that "you do not have the right to throw away all of the work that has been done before you for this church." He teared up and said that just 4 hours earlier a sister missionary in new york had been killed in a car crash and that she sacrificed her life for this church and that we have to hold ourselves accountable as symbols for this church. it was a real eye opener for all of us. kicked us all back into gear. The days really do fly by though once you get into the groove of things. It was a long weekend though because we didnt get letters or packages or dear elders on sunday or monday. and i still havent checked it yet. But thank you all again for the letters :) those, gym, and eating, is what keep us going when we're extremely bored learing spanish.

Congrats on the 3 point shoot out james! I'm sure it wasnt full of 10 year old girls or anything....right? haha glad to hear that everything is going well back home. just make sure you dont worry about me because i know im in safe hands here. they take good care of us. The spanish is coming along but im no where near ready to be going down to Peru. we still havent gotten any travel plans yet and we're hoping they'll come in the next few days...gotta pray for that. Ill let you know when we head out. The date is still set for the 14th of September but if we dont get our visa's then it may be pushed back. ill send a letter home as soon as i know the date and time we fly out. Tell Konnor for me, good luck and that he's gonna be an awesome Deacon :). The food isnt too bad, it gets better but its just not like your home cooking ;) on the bright side though, all of the rest of the elders in our district also heard that Piura had (pensions) maids for the elders in Peru!!!! hahaha we're all so excited. you dont even know. Right now I'm waiting for my clothes to be done in the washer so i can move them to the dryer but who knows...in 3 months I may not have to worry about that :)...or i may have to be washing them by hand....haha.

Feel free to send me the occasional update on how bad UCLA football is or how great the Steelers are. I heard BYU won by 1 last week, everyone here talks about that. We were all just sitting in class quietly studying last saturday and I looked up to elder frame (who went to BYU and loves Football) and said "Elder...College football season is happening RIGHT now ...haha we got really sad and depressed. we do the same thing to each other when we're in there studying at 8 on a friday night...."elder, we could be partying right now...." But that's what we gave up and I dont regret it in the least. Ill be ready to party it up when I get back, just you wait!

Oh and I also have seen kyle quite a few times and he seems to be doing okay, probably better than i did the first week. Oh and i told him the BYU score so tell Cory not to worry about that.

Thank you Alli and Stacey for the rolls!!! they were amazing! I shared them with everyone in our district just to be nice ;) I hope you all had fun in Canada!

We get more spiritual preparation than i thought we would which surprised me because i just want to get right down to it and learn the spanish language so i can teach. but I get it now. My testimony has been strengthened so much just in the last two weeks. We have a great set of teachers that do a fantastic job at inviting the spirit when they teach. Ive strengthened my knowledge of the fact that im not out here alone, and that helps a lot. I know that I have to leave my Mom and Dad but it really has brought be closer to my Heavenly Father.

Thanks again for all of the Love and support! I can feel it from here! miss you tons! This is the Lords work and there's nothing better!!!

I love and miss you all.
Elder Tyler Woodburn