Paquete!

Hola Hola Hola!!!!

First of all.... I got the package last Thursday! Yay! Oh man I can’t tell you all how much I loved that package! The first night I sprayed my whole bed and sheets and blanket with the febreeze. It was like I was sleeping on a cloud! For real! Ah man it was amazing. And then the second night I busted open those Yankee candle air fresheners and hung one from our fan...it was heavenly. Thank you very very much. Its quite a smelly place down here to be honest but at least now I can smell better while I sleep :) Oh and I almost forgot! Those T bell packets? Those were a hilarious joke, I laughed really hard when I saw them, but then I busted one out and used it on the food, oh man, and it was the most beautiful thing ive ever eaten! lol it literally tricked my mind into thinking that I was eating a t bell bean burrito even though it was just a piece of chicken. I will be savoring those. I also love those power bars you sent, I haven’t eaten any of them yet because I want to savor them, but trust me I will cherish it ;) you all are the best. Thanks so much for sending the stuff you do! I love it! But as for my birthday, you all really don’t need to send anything! For real! If you wanna do something for me for my birthday I would REALLY love it if you prayed for my investigators *wink* *wink* haha honestly that is the life of a missionary, I don’t need anything else! :) Oh and also thank you very much for the Ensign, but I can get by for the most part with the Spanish liahonas that they give us down here now, so no need to take up room with those in the packages :) unless of course its a magazine that starts with S and ends in Ports illustrated ;) jk jk I would love to get the conference addition though because those talks are better read in English when I can really study them :) Thank you so much! So to sum it all up, all I would like for my birthday is lots of prayers and hot sauce from taco bell. :) Oh and power bars :D

But speaking of conference! Oh man imp so excited haha I can’t wait to watch. I’m really really hoping that all of us English elders can go into a different room and listen to it in English. Really hoping but well see. We are all going to go to the stake center in Castilla so that we can watch it. It’s about an hour away from here and that’s where we go for our zone meetings too every week. I can’t wait to see and hear what the prophet has to say this time. Fingers crossed for my man Elder Jeffrey R. Holland to talk! haha

But lets see, what else has been going on? This week was a pretty awesome one. You all must be praying pretty hard back home because in those first three weeks down here in La Union we didn’t have a single investigator attend church, but this last week it all started to come together. We have that family that I told you about and the dad works all the time and sometimes he works so much that he just sleeps there at his job. But he told us that if he can’t get baptized that we can baptize his family haha. So the mom and her three daughters attended church this week and loved it. And then there is this other lady who’s daughter is a member that finally came to church and got up in one of the meetings and announced that she was gonna get baptized! haha love those ones that just find it out on their own. regalos is what they’re called here (gifts) lol but an even bigger regalo that we had was this little kid. We went to go eat lunch with a family who has a son serving a mission in El Salvador and whose daughter is active in the church. The mom really wants to get baptized but isn’t married and her spouse doesn’t want to so she cant. And it’s actually pretty funny because your mindset as a missionary is just so different lol. We are sitting at the table waiting for her to bring out lunch and her little son runs up and starts talking to us. We play with him for a second and them I ask him, ¿cuantos años tiene? How old are you? He says he’s seven and were just like ah man.... and then he says, but I turn 8 on Monday! haha Elder Chichia and I just look at each other and start laughing. Talk about a regalo. So we are going to work with them too because even though two of his siblings are members his parents aren’t so it would count as a convert. So all in all we had 5 investigators attend church and then one of the daughters that is only 3 years old, Betty. She’s a cutie haha. Don’t worry I was sure to give each of them a silly band that you sent :) thanks.

This week we were going to go visit this family that we have but first we were going to stop by a members house so that he could go to the lesson with us. So we are walking down the street and we are supposed to turn left to go to his house but this little kid runs up to us and is like can I walk with you? We asked why and he said because some kid wanted to beat him up! haha so we asked him if he was a member of the church and he said yes so we told him that we protect our own and ended up taking a little detour by going straight instead of right. Anyways the little kid got home safe and it turned out that the member that we were looking for was actually in the house of the president of the branch and so if we hadn’t helped that little kid we would have missed him and ended up going to the lesson alone. I really hope you could understand that but its just one of the small blessings you notice. We get tons of help here.

I can’t believe its Sunday again really. 7 months come and gone already. Its crazy to think about and I hope I can start taking better advantage of it so that when I finish I can look back and know that I have no regrets. Thank you all so much for all of the love and blessings that you send my way. Love you all tons! Thanks a lot for the pics you sent mommy! loved em. Dad is lookin kinda grey in that pic ;) tell him to take care of that ;) keep on doing what you’re doing up there in the US of A and ill keep working hard down here in Perú!

Love you all!

Elder Woodburn

Semana Santa

Feliz Semana Santa!

Its spring break here in La Union which is what they call Semana Santa...not entirely sure why...probably becuase everyone here is catholic. But anyways, all is well this week. We had a good sacrament meeting yesterday where we had the windows open because its always so hot, and then the neighbor next to the church decided he wanted to listen to the oldies. He started blaring "listen to your heart" and that song from titanic while me and my comp were passing the sacrament.lol It was definitely one of the most interesting sacrament meetings ive ever been in. but other than that not much. I had to buy a back pack because right now the one i use is really big, but all i usually carry around is my scriputres and pamflets. but with such a huge black backpack, my back gets really sweaty and hot. so we had a memeber that went to lima and there is a store out in front of the temple where he is gonna buy us backpacks that are made for missionaries for 40 soles, and they are gonna stitch our names and "piura peru mision" on it. so its definitely worth it. Dont worry about the money though. i should be able to hold out for a few more weeks. Ill have you know that when i got back the money was there...or at least 40 of it was. im not sure if i took the other 20 dollars and spent it or if i got robbed but...nonetheless it was plenty of money :)

Early in the week we were in that room that you all love so much that isnt sealed off and the sun shines in lol. and we leave the window open becuase its hot, but were in there studying and all of a sudden a bird flys in. he just chills in our room for a while and then flys out. yeah they fly in and crap all over our stuff hahahaha. its great. but i almost forgot! Before that even happened i was in our bathroom which is where the holes in the roof are, and i was brushing my teeth (like a good boy) and through that little tiny hole in the roof....a bird pooped on me....yep right on my arm....i was not very happy about that....lol but thats life. classic.

Oh yeah and one other tragic thing that i forgot to tell you all about. it happended about a month ago now but in my last area with Elder Cabrera, my dog whistle died.... :( ah it was so sad. We havent had anything to entertain us in weeks! haha I bought a new battery but i think it broke. so im just thowing it out there, its not a necessity or anything but if anyone feels the need to send me another dog whistle, you will always be loved by me. just throwing it out there. lol

But other than that not a ton. Just going to work. We found a really good family that is way interested in the church, 4 people. i really wanna baptize a whole family at the same time. well see how it goes. one of the hardest things here is that the poeple have to work all day everyday which is the case with the dad, so hopefully he will find some time to get to church.

I dont take my debit card with me anywhere though. We know how dangerous it can be so the only time we have it on us is when we go to take out money. It sucks but we are pretty darn careful. and We never buy anything with the debit card. itd be difficult enough to find a place that could accept it.lol

Ill try and bring you a pig home but...they smell reeeeealllly bad lol. and you cant even eat them because they are contaminated! they have to tie them up because theyll run away if they dont! But tell james good luck from me with his interview. ill keep him in my prayers. im sure he'll tear it up. tell him im also jealous that hes able to spend so much time in the temple! ah i wanna go so bad but not until i get back.haha ah well.

Hopefully the package will come soon but who knows. I think since you all sent it with Elder Swaseys name on it it might take a little bit longer to get from customs so well see. But im excited ;) Thanks for all the love and prayers from way up there! keep on keeping on! Mosiah 2:41

Love

Elder Woodburn

La Union...

View from the new apartment!

The new area!

Rice fields.

The new room: a lot bigger than the last...but just as hot.

¡Ai Familia y mis amigos!

Thats too bad to hear about my debit card, especially since I was really planning on taking out money today like you said. We get 110 soles every month from the mission and I used mine to buy a backpack, planning on just repaying it from my own debit card so i was really confused on what I was going to do because I dont have any money. but its a good thing that you offered to send me american dollars because that reminded me of the secret stash of american dollars that I kept in that country time lemonade that I got at missionary mall lol. knew that would come in handy! but yeah now I have 60 american dollars which is more than enough and should tide me over until I need to withdraw more. Im not really sure what the best way is to get me a debit card but maybe vanessa would be it?

Anyways. dont worry about getting money to me for now. I should be good with the money that I have, good thing I come prepared right? ;) haha

But anywho, this week has been pretty good. The area here in La Union 2 is pretty duro (hard). so far in the two weeks that we have been here, we have had one return visit. its a lot harder to get into houses and teach people here than it was in tumbes, and then when we actually do, its crazy hard to teach them a second time. But overall im just excited about the only lesson number two that we had with Hno. Angel. We left him a book of mormon the first visit and said that it can help him solve his problems. then he had an argument with his mom and remembered what we told him, so he decided to read and felt a really good calming feeling. so we are going to work more with him. he has a really big desire to learn more but he works ALL day every day and doesnt have much time for lessons or to go to church. well see how it goes...and hopefully we can find some more investigators haha. its proof that they are out there right?

Sorry the rest of this is pretty short. not a whole lot going on this week, except that we had a little party for the Elder Gonzalez that lives in our room with us. he finished his first year the 10th of march so he burned a shirt and we bought a cake. i sent some pics for you all so i hope you like them.

I always have stuff that i want to tell you guys but then i forget when i get here, so im gonna try and write them down. The Lords work goes on but im out of time. I love and miss you all tons! thanks for all of the constant love and support from way up there in the USA.

Anyways love you all and I'll talk to you again next week!

Love,

Elder Woodburn

Hola from....

Hola mi familia!!!

As I said last week, we had transfers and i got sent out of Tumbes! and i
am now in....La Union 2! I basically went from the most north part of the
mision to the most south part. We are south of Piura where the mision home
is by about 60 minutes. Last week we all traveled down to piura to meet for
transfers and then he assigned us to our areas. I am down here in la union
with Elder Chichia. Hes from Sandy, Utah but hes mexican. He knows spanish
and english really well so hopefully i can use that to my advantage and
learn a lot more. he is a pretty relaxed guy and its kinda nice to be able
to speak in english every once in a while. we are both new to la union and
the other elders that were here before us didnt leave us anything to work
with...so its basically like we are opening up a new area. all we did this
week was knock doors and find new investigators. its also been a pretty dry
area here so well have to work pretty hard to get investigators here. its
actually not a ward here either, its a branch so its a little bit
different, but there is a church and lots of members so not too different.
im pretty sure they are going to become a ward in like 3 months anyways.
but when i was in Tumbes our whole zone was within like a 5-10 min car ride
of eachother. but here in Castilla (the zone) we have to travel 1 hr in a
combi (van) to get to our meetings everyweek. Its just tons of fun needless
to say haha. but oh well.

We have a pretty nice room though. You should remeber the other video that
i sent you of our last room in tumbes right? well this room we have now is
like 2 1/2 times as big as that. but really as missionaries it doesnt mean
anything lol. just lots of empty space. and it also means that we dont have
to use bun beds becuase there is more space. i sent pictures of the room.
the only problem is that we are on the 3rd floor. which is pretty cool
because of the great view that we have (which i also sent a picture of ;))
(better be thankful for those pics ;) jk jk) but the problem is that its
smoking hot up there. There is another set of elders that live down stairs
and their room is always nice and chilly but all of the hot air rises up to
our room soo...yeah it isnt much fun. but thats alright, we just leave our
window open all of the time. and you know what that means! we get to sleep
with mosquito nets at night! haha i really dont like those at all, but its
part of the exp :) but anyways, not a whole lot else going on, the other
two elders are also from different countries, one from Guatemala and the
other from El Salvador. Elder Agular is a pretty funny guy, he only has 1
month in the mission but all he does is talk and joke around lol i love it.

....sad day about T swift and T bow....lol jk jk. She´ll be married by the
time i get back for sure.

Sounds like you all had tons of fun down in AZ. Wish i could have come down
to hang out with you all. The weather sounds a lot better than here. Its
actually just as hot here as it was in Tumbes during the days. but at night
it gets a little bit chillier. the only downside is that there are gnats
everywhere and they are the most annoying things ever! hate them lol. oh
and about the mail, yeah im pretty sure itll get here quicker. The only
problem is that im pretty sure that a bunch of my mail had just arrived in
Tumbes when i left, so now they will have to send it all to the office and
then to me here in Castilla, so it might take a while. But i got a letter
from Mert this week! yay! thanks Mert :D

Sounds like everyone is doing well! its always great to hear how everyones
life has changed for the better including mine. Man this church is true, am
i right? we dont need to look any further than our own family. i love and
miss you all more than you can imagine. but i just keep trucking along in a
new area with new amigos. Tell the rest of the world hi for me, ive got
Peru covered ;)

Hasta la proxima semana,

Love,
Elder Woodburn