Me voy!

Elder Woodburn & an investigator that was baptized on Sunday.

Eww... goat poop.

A new Amigo :)

Brother Martin and his daughter that were baptized today.

Hola Familia!

Sorry this weeks letter is a little bit late and im also typing on a pretty bad keyboard so expect a lot of words to be spelled wrong. But the last 3 days or so have been real hectic!

The week went pretty normal, just teaching and whatnot, but at the start of the week Elder Trudo (our DL) told us that our zone of 15 companionships had a goal of 16 baptisms this week and that our district (3 companionships) had a goal of 8 of those baptisms. now to really understand this goal you have to understand that the zone as a whole had 7 baptisms in the month of december...notta mas. so it was pretty high. but like the dumb missionaries we are, we had faith ;) so the week went by and one companinship had the bap of a family of 3 and then the other elder baptized 1 and then saturday came around.

Im not sure what happend this week with the food but it just hasnt been treating me well as of late. it was perfectly fine before but now it has been holding me down. but i think yoou all understand when i say that it sucks to be sick. So all saturday i was sick but then we had a baptismal date set for these spouses. they are pretty old but we met them like a week and a half ago, gave them a book of mormon and the next day they asked when they could be baptized! haha talk about golden investigators. so in order to be baptized here we try to have the investigators to have 2 weeks attended at church and then baptism. so they attended the first week, and then yesterday right after their second week at church, we baptized them! it was awesome, but i was also feeling pretty sick so kinda bitter sweet. but so that went off well, and then last night we were sitting the in pension and another one of our investigators that is really funny and LOVES to talk a lot Hno Martin came over and told us he wanted to be baptized before i left becuase we were pretty sure i was going to leave. so we got everything set up and boom, today we baptized him and his daughter. It was a rush. and so thats why im a little bit late on this email, that and now i need to go pack my stuff because....im heading out of TUMBES! haha in other words...me voy! we dont know where we are going to be yet because we all go to piura for a big meeting with the president and then he tells us where we are going and with who. so youll have to wait till next week and ill let you know but maybe itll be a little but closer to piura, or in piura. My dream is to go to a zone called Castilla in Piura because there is a golf course there and i would definitiely go one p day. haha

But so in the end we had 4 baptism this week, another set of elders had 4 too, and the other set had 1. so our district had 9 baptisms alone, exceeded our goal and blew away the number of baptisms we had in decemeber haha. Gotta love that faith.

Another cool experience we had this week was when we went over to talk to the hna Rosillo after her baptism. I told you all about how she was having trouble with finiding work and everything before right? yeah well we went over there saturday night and she told us that she now has 3 different job offers and she gets to choose between the three for which ever is the better offer! and then when Elder Lopez was here with me we gave her a blessing of health because she has all kinds of problems with her health and has inflamation all the time so we gave it to her like 8 weeks ago and never heard anything else about it. and then the other night she told us that she hasnt had any inflamation since and feels tons better. Some of those testimony builders right? you just see so many blessings in this work, so many tender mercies that you really dont pick up when youre going on with your life. its amazing to see and i hope i never forget them.

its gonna be sad to go for sure. Elder Cabrera is a great comp and well have to see who my new one is but im sure it will all turn out okay. back to learning the ropes right?

Thanks for the news on the package! cant wait to get it! hopefully ill be a little bit closer now and it wont take as long to send and receive. but as for sending packages now, we have a new finance secretary for the mission so instead of putting elder swaseys name on there above mine, make sure you put Elder Andrew Stephenson. Thats the same Elder Stephenson from my group that was in my district in the MTC in case you were wondering. That guys a genius so its no wonder that hes working as the financial sec.

Well all is going well out here on the mish. It has its moments where its difficult but I remember reading one email from Alec where he said "well now i think i can pretty much say that i can at least express what i want to in spanish" I think thats the point that I'm at now. I can express what I want to. There are still times where its difficult and I wanna punch someone but thats why im here right? (to grow in my patience not to punch someone lol)

Anyways i hope everyone is doing well. tell everyone that i love and miss them tons and that this church is true ;) haha. everyone needs to know.

Now i must go throw all of my stuff in my suit cases really quickly so that i can take a bus to piura in the middle of the night....happy day...lol miss you all tons and love you more!

Elder Woodburn

Not quite 6 months!

Hna. Rosillo's baptism day

That smile he was talking about :)

A rainbow after church

The whole family

Another little girl Elder Woodburn baptized

Hola Familia!

Thanks for the pictures! its always awesome to see the family and what you
all are up to. sounds like you all had a great weekend hanging out with the
family and playing games! I remember those good times. Id like to remind
everyone that the last time we played the train game...Alli and I won. yeah
thats right, i went out on top. defending champion right here :) good times
good times.

But this week has been a pretty good one. Just trying to keep working hard.
Its pretty funny to see really with spanish, looking back i kinda hit a rut
and didnt feel like i was learning a whole lot more or progressing, but
then i also looked back and realized that i was forgetting to pray and ask
for help in learning spanish everyday. How stupid of me! haha i started
doing it again this week and BOOM, ive felt great with my spanish and ive
really started clicking with Elder Cabrera more, telling jokes and all
that. Its just so plain to me to see just how powerful prayer is. But last
monday night we ended up going over to Hna. Rosillos house and talking to
her for like 2 hours. She like retold her whole life to us and all of the
struggles that shes gone through. It was incredibly sad to hear. But that
is the weird thing about being missionaries, there is just something about
it that when the people let us in their houses, they just open up and start
crying, telling us all of their problems and trials. Its proof that EVERY
single person is looking for something, looking for an answer that can only
be found within this gospel. WE talked for about 2 hours and had a great
lesson about trails in our lives and how they are for our experience and
growth. We shared D & C 121 4 and 5 or something (which i love) about
Joseph Smith "Peace be unto they soul, thy trials and afflictions will be
but a small moment". Then we stopped by the next day and told us that she
wanted to be baptized the next day! how incredible is that! i sent some
pics home of the baptism. I cant describe to you all how big of a change i
have seen in her since her baptism in just 4 or 5 days. Before, she was
always depressed, never smiled, didnt want to listen to the lessons, and
always argued with her family. now all she does is smiles, jokes around
with her family and laughs. She has tasted of the sweet sweet joy of the
Atonement!!! Its the most incredible thing. Look at those old pictures i
sent you of the baptisms of her kids where she wasnt smiling and then
compare it to the one of her and her kids after her baptism. Theres no
mistaking it. She shared her testimony after the bap. and said that before,
she never in a million years thought she was going to be baptized. she told
her family that they could listen all they want, but not to call her
because she didnt want to listen. No me llamen!!! haha shes a funny lady
and it has been such a pleasure to see this change in her life. it made it
even better than her son was able to baptize her.

Transfers are coming up next week and im pretty satisfied here. like i said
E Cabrera and i are starting to get along well and click so i dont really
want to change areas....which means ill probably be leaving next week haha.
there is a near 0 % chance that E cabrera leaves and its fairly rare to
spend 4 changes in the same area so well see how the cookie crumbles. But
yeah 6 months is creeping up on me. Looking back, it really hasnt been that
long of time, i mean, it has, but at the same time, it really hasnt. and
now that spanish is starting to come together even more, it should be a
little bit faster too.

So i know this is a little bit earlier than i usually email so sorry but
there arent any pictures from our p day activity today, ill be sure to send
them next week. We are going to go to this collesium as a zone and play
basketball and futbol americano (football) im pretty pumped. haha but all
is going well here in Tumbes. Its blazing hot, i smell so bad (which
reminds me, all i do is sweat at night, so my bed smells awful, (i know i
know, thats gross, but its also Peru haha ) so, i would love some febreeze
if thats at all possible ;) thank you dear mother of mine :)) but the work
goes on. Im just glad to get the chance to take part in it. Its gonna go
forward with or without me, im just along for the ride.

Tell everyone thank you for the well wishes! Im
sending them all the way from Tumbes Peru too! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Woodburn

Feliz P-Day Familia!

Oh man it has definitely been a rainy week! It has usually just rained
at night so weve gotten lucky, but its just terrible walking around in
it all. i hadnt shined my shoes in a week and then this thursday and
friday we had training with the president so i decided to shine em up
and then try and keep them clean for the ride to the stake
center...yeah that was pointless. they were covered in mud by the time
we got there. So im pretty sure im not gonna shine them up until i
get transfered out of Tumbes. The other terrible thing about the rain
is that the mosquitos are coming. they havent been all that bad so
far, but with all this rain and sitting water that we have in the
streets now, its definietly coming. Elder Rice and Cabrera, another
companionship, live in a house connected to our pensionista but we
live like a block away. anyways we have an actual roof so we cant hear
the rain when it rains, but they have a tin roof, and they just get
ROCKED in the middle of the night when it dumps here. i feel kinda bad
but im glad that its not us :) haha

I was actually thinking about the blessings that our family has
experienced the other day. its pretty amazing. Earlier this week we
had exchanges of companions and Elder Trudo, our District Leader, came
and worked with me in our area, Los Angeles 2. It was awesome, he only
has about 3 more months than i do but hes a cool guy. Hes from
Arkansas and he was telling me all about his family and the blessings
that hes seen while hes been gone and getting ready. Thats how i feel.
The mission really does bring everything into perspective though, just
reading from prophets and learning gospel principles everyday, its a
whole nother life. Its a testimony to me that our Heavely Father cares
for us and is looking out for us. We just have to search him out
first.

As for the work in our area, weve been working hard, and seeing small
miricles here and there but not a whole lot of people REALLY wanting
to do anything. and thats what president Chipman has been stressing,
finding out who really wants to do something and who wants to just
listen to the Palabra de Dios (word of god) thats all you ever hear
down here haha. "oh yeah i love to listen to the word of god, come on
in...but im catholic so dont even think im gonna change" lol its tough
at times. but thats why were here, to work, the rest will come with
time.

Well all, the work goes on down here. I learn more everyday, but i
really have got to get better with teaching and being ready to teach.
i feel bad for my comp sometimes, he still has to carry us in the
lessons. maybe some day right ;) Miss you all.

I know this church is true and that is organized and run by our
Heavely Father from the top down.

Keep up the good work in the states and ill talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Woodburn

Feliz Feb!

Muy Buenos Tardes Familia!

Comó estan?! pretty good week over here, just working hard. i realized just what working hard is this week. before, with elder lopez we didnt really work hard, i thought we were doing okay, but i still kinda knew that we really werent working that hard, but this week we had the best numbers ive ever had in the mish....given that ive only been out 5 1/2 months but still, lots of lessons and new investigators, it was great, until sunday came around, which is when we go around early in the morning to knock on the doors of the investigators to see if they are ready to go to church (theyre kinda like kids). but thats just how it is here, you invite everyone to church and everyone says yes. yeah ill definitley go to church, no problem. and then we wake up a half hour earlier at 6 to go around before church at 8 and knock on their doors, and noone was ready. we DID have one lady tell us that she would meet us at the church which was awesome!...until she never showed up....lol oh well. just one of those weeks with good and bad to it right?

As for spanish, im doing fine. ive really settled in to it all. My comp told me today that i talk a lot in my sleep which i had no idea, but after that i remembered the dream i had last night and it was really really random lol. I dreamed that i was in Liberty Lake and i had to go to albertsons and buy some pants (which they dont have) but in my dream i went in and asked in spanish "¿tiene ropa aqúi?" (do you have clothes here) and they said yes and then i went and looked and all they had was really expensive jordan shorts which i couldnt buy and then i woke up. i know really random, but the POINT of the story is that i actually dreamt in spanish! everyone says that when you dream in another language youre good to go right? so now i dont have to try and learn it anymore! yay! im fluent!!!.... haha no definitely not. i dreamt in spanish but i am far from fluent so that is a myth if you ask me. but cool to experience :)

This week though we got absolutely dumped on with rain. just rocked. luckily it was every single night and not every single day so we stayed out of it for the most part, but the roads still suck to walk on and one night we got soaked. but then the last time it rained, saturday, it rained all day long. it was pretty bad. luckily we have a hna in our ward that gave me an umbrella to use so that worked out well....for about 30 min, after which the water started to leak through...lol classic right? even the umbrellas dont work here! sad haha. which reminds me, let me know how that stuff i sent home is working out. did that jersey actually fit dad? did it make it through a wash cycle without ripping? haha love this place.

One thing ive noticed now is that a way that we like to start lessons is by asking if they have any "questions of the soul" like does god exist? how can i be closer to god? why are there so many churches today? stuff like that. but lately there have been a lot of is it the end of the world? questions because of 2012. so i have a feeling that that will be the theme of this year. especially when it gets closer. there are going to be a lot more people freaking out about it. We like to share the scripture in Mateo that talks about how no one knows the coming of the lord.

But as for that stuff not much else. just going to work. it was awesome to see those pics from home! haha tell dad and james i hope they heal up and feel better! man they got rocked! i wonder if that means ill be alergic to that some day? crazy! tell james sorry about his nose, hope he gets better soon. Tell him A.I. would play through the pain.lol

Gotta go but i love you all tons!

Elder Woodburn