Monday, May 28, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Hola from Peru!
Hey everyone! how is the US of A? Peru is good as always. Its actually
started getting a little bit chilly at nights which is awesome, very
rare, but awesome. So now i can actually use a blanket at night, but
its still really hot at night :) Sounds like everyone is having just a
ton of fun up there, Working working and planning the wedding haha. I
guess if i had to leave everyone for 2 years this would be a good time
to do it right? haha except for when im gonna miss humpers wedding :(
sorry bump, thatll be a sad day for sure. But tell her good luck at
the temple for me! where is she going to go to take out her
endowments? itll be a great day for her :)
But lets see, Transfers were today and....Im staying here another 6
weeks with Elder Chichia! Actually nothing changed here, Me, Elder
Chichia, Valladares, and Aguilar are all staying here in La Union
which is okay. There could definitely be worse missionaries to be here
with us. Were all pretty close and get along well so it should be a
good transfer. The only thing that i wish is that one of us had
changed. Not that i dont like any of them, i just like to get the
change, change something up and make it different. But i really like
it here in La Union. The branch is really cool and there are a lot of
helpful members. Oh and more good news is that....Elder Chichia and I
had 2 more Baptisms this week! yay! haha I sent pictures of the two
teenagers that we baptized. One was a little girl that was part of a
family that were already all members so we just had to teach her the
lessons and she was ready to get baptized. But the other little boy is
a really cool kid. We started teaching him and his mom said that it
was okay but that she didnt want to listen. So we taught him and he
came to church right away, had a friend in the church, and accepted
baptism. Then we talked to his mom and she said that he couldnt do it.
But then he explained to her the change that he had experienced in his
life the last few weeks while going to church and to the activities
(which is cool because the last thing i was thinking of when i was 13
is a "change" in my life haha) and then she said it was okay and even
ended up attending the baptism. So now we are going to start teaching
her. We have 2 or 3 really interested investigators that will probably
get baptized this transfer with a little bit more help. So im
definitiely excited to stay here. :) One thing that i want to start
doing is finding familes to teach! ugh. Its a little bit tougher just
baptizing one person at a time of kids, Because then there is the risk
that the parents prevent the kids from ever going back to church. but
when its a family they can all support each other and go together.
Hopefully we can improve on that in the next 6 weeks. Oh and by the
way, this is the last transfer for PResident Chipman and his wife!
crazy.
This week was pretty normal...except for the fact that we had to waste
A LOT of time going to Piura 4 times to see the stupid dentist. All
in all it turned out okay because now i have my fake tooth and it
seems to be working out okay. Its a little bit bigger than the rest
as you can see in the picture, but I had him cut off the back half of
my retainer so that i could still use it for the rest of my teeth. It
seems like everything is okay so now we can begin to laugh about what
a joke that dentist was haha :) Thanks for all of the prayers :)
Thanks for all of the love and letters this week!
Well time to get out of here. Love you all and I know this church is true
:) ¡hasta la próxima semana!
Con mucho amor
Elder Woodburn
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Happy Mother's Day!
The baptism of Yampier.
wasnt able to send flowers, maybe next year ;) but i hope it was a
great day nonetheless :) it was really great to talk to you and the
whole family :) No worries about "not being prepared" I loved
everysecond of it :) Oh and trust me mommy, ive changed my mind and
you have the green light to get a puppy before i get home, you can
consider it my mothers day present ;) I think it would be awesome to
come home to a puppy dog :) Im really glad that Skype ended up
working out okay. Thanks for being impressed with my spanish ;) It
isnt that great but i remember when i first started learning and it
sounded like jibberish when someone started talking. Ha sorry about my
lame answer when you asked what ive learned but i was thinking about
it last night as i was getting ready for bed and i think something
really interesting that ive learned out here is to be obedient. Its
easy as a missionary, you just obey the commandments and everything is
all good. But the lifestyle down here in South America is way
different, they all know the commandments but leave in the middle of
church to go buy some chips at the corner store and they dont think
its wrong, or the deacon will go out 15 min before sacrament meeting
starts and buy the bread for the sacrament (that one is actually
really really bad and i need to talk to the president of the branch
about that lol) But i was thinking about it, and to someone like me, it
just looks ridiculous, how could you ever think that is okay? but then
at the same time i look back to before the mission at what i did, and
i would think, oh ill just go to the store real quick and get this or
that and no one will ever really know. There are just little things
that we all do . Little rules that are broken and its tough but
everyone does it. So I think ive come to realize just how impotant it is
to be obedient. When we don't obey Heavenly Father commandments, we
miss out on his blessings.and who wants that, right? ;) haha
but yeah, ive definitiely learned how to be more exactly obedient. Im
definitely not perfect, but im trying ;)
Today i went to the dentist again and that was a real adventure :) he
shaved my tooth down pretty good for the crown and ended up just
shaving the gum down....which ended up bleeding pretty goood. haha but
good news is only two more visits to piura and then ill be done with
that guy! yay! oh but best part of the story is that after i finished
the appointment i was a little bit grumpy already and asked if i could
use their bathroom real quick and they said yes, so i went in the
bathroom, shut the door, and then as i was trying to leave....the
doorknob was broken and i was stuck in....haha classic. That was
another "Peru" moment haha I ended up getting out after about 10
minutes using my debit card on the door. haha oh which reminds me,
Elder Chica and Sly said everything is good with the card. so no
worries.
Ive also realized that my "wow" factor has gotten numbed down. I am
much less phased by the craziness of this country. I
remember Elder Alec Howard would have his "only in Apache Junction"
section with all of the weird stuff that happened there, but now that
i think about it, i cant think of weird stuff that happens because it
all seems so normal. But REALLY its all weird haha. The other day a
guy walked through the middle of one of our discussions carrying a skinned
cows leg on his shoulder and the other in his left hand dripping blood
everywhere....no one even batted an eyelash.lol Its pretty great.
basically you just have to come down to experience it.
Well unfrotunately i had trouble getting the computer to work today so
i gotta go, but i sent some pics too. Hope you like them.
Love you all and ill talk to you next week!
Love, Elder Woodburn
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Yeah...
Yeah so....Ive got Good News and bad news...Good news is that I now know what i want to do when I get back and go to school! Im gonna be a Dentist! ...bad news is that Ive decided on being a Dentist so that no one has to go through what ive gone through the last week...lol. Im not sure how long a root canal takes in the states but apparently here it takes like 6+ appointments. Last Monday we went to the Dentist to get started and they just checked it out really quick and didnt really do anything except poke me and tell me to come back friday. So we set up an appointment for Friday and went in the morning. We showed up and got started at about 10 or so....It was a pretty big joke...lol It took forever, he numbed me up with about 4 giant shots to the mouth, took like 5 x rays (the first 3 without the protective metal shirt, then after that he must have thought it was just ridiculous to do x rays without it? haha) That was all just a great big ball of fun. But what was really dumb is that he wrote me a perscription for some drug that is like 10 mg of pain killer....so i went and took that and...it did nothing at all. Weird huh? So Saturday we ended up having to go all the way back becuase my tooth was killing me and he took another x ray (dnt worry this time with the metal jacket ;) and wrote me another perscription that i figured was gonna be something pretty good. All i wanted was something to make the constant pain in my tooth go away so i could go out and proselyte and work. The perscription he ended up writing me was some fancy name in spanish and then when i bought it at the store....it was Bayer...something that you can buy over the counter in the States...haha It didnt do anything either. So I called Hna Chipman and she told me to buy some Ibuprofen 600 mg and take it every 6 hours. So i did that and...it didnt really do much either...Saturday night was.....not very good....hahaha BUT I will reassure you all by telling you that now there isnt any pain. The inflamation finally went down and it only hurts when i bite down. We went again today and he did step 5 or 6 of 10 i think? im not sure...i kinda lost track. But we get to go back tomorrow and hes gonna put in the metal part, then wait 5 days and put on the crown and then 2 more times to see if its okay or something. But yeah....It was definitely an adventure....fun fun fun. Best part was that there was a TV in the dentists office for the patients to watch while they are getting their teeth worked on. Naturally i wasnt watching it because im a Missionary and because i was scared of this guy tearing my mouth apart. But it was another one of those times when i was just like....oh man...im really in South America. The guy was sitting there working on my tooth, trying to take out the nerves with those little drills that they have...and he was watching soccer at the same time....oh boy thats how you know youre in South America, when they dentist is watching soccer while working on my teeth. he ended up giving me about 6 shots with that huge needle, and taking like 10 x rays. That didnt help me build confidence in his ability. haha But now I think im okay with the fact that It doesnt hurt anymore...
Well thats a pretty joyful way to start the letter. sorry about that. But more good news is that I got your package finally! yay! Aparently i should have gone on a mission a long time ago because thats the way to get Oakley Sunglasses sent to you! haha mom youre crazy with those glasses! But i will say, These are definitely my favorite yet :) love the sunglasses affect and the way they fit. Thanks mommy i love you :) You all really hooked me up with tons of good stuff and the Ensign to read :) youre the best. We opened it up in front of the zone leaders and they were definitely jealous but dont worry i shared with them :) Oh and they asked how I get so many pairs of glasses and i told them that they are basically free for you right? or no? haha but anyways Elder Cañete says that if thats true he would love you if you could get him a pair and he would pay you for how much they cost you. Im not sure if its really that easy or not but I wouldnt ask for anyy other Elder, Hes just a really cool dude so i figured id try :)
Tell the Perkins hi for me! I remember their family :) Sister Perkins was a ward missionary with me in the ward :) I would love to hear from them :) They can send anything their hearts desire and i will absolutely love it down here in Peru haha. But Socks would always be a good choice because even though dryers dont really exist down here, "the dryer monster" apparently still does because ive been loosing some socks when my laundty lady gives em back haha. Oh and ties are always good. Its about all we can change in our outfit :) tell them the uglier they better. :D Oh which reminds me, thanks for the ties mommy :) love em, just what i needed :)
So as for skype i think i am going to do it Saturday at 1 30 here in Peru. I hope that works okay for everyone :) not sure what time that is there in Utah but thats when ill be on. Hopefully itll all be hooked up :) Cant wait to talk to everyone!
Sounds like the fam is doing great. Sorry i cant write to everyone but i gotta go :(
Love you all a ton. Not much about the work this week but it went REALLY well. Especially considering i spent most all of my time in Piura. We have a bunch of good investigators and We should have a baptism this sunday :) fingers crossed. Wish i could write more but I cant wait to talk to you Saturday at 1 30 :D Love you tons!
Love,
Elder Woodburn
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Hola desde la Dentista
Hola Familia y otras personas que están leyendo esta carta.
Pretty good week this week. So lets see, I wasnt able to get my packages the day before my birthday because the Zone Leaders hadnt gone to Piura so that was too bad, but i got a chocolate candy bar from President and Hna Chipman so its all good :) Then about the 24th in the evening my tooth started to bug me a little bit, not too bad, just a little nagging pain. But then the 25th when i went to bed it got really bad and i woke up like 6 times that night. So I called the Assistents to the president and they wanted me to come to Piura so that we could go to the dentist but We had a lot of good appointments set up that afternoon with members, and its hard to have lessons here with members so i decided that i was willing to wait and push through the pain. now that being said....none of the members that were supposed to come with us could actually go so....that was kinda a bust....haha but that was okay, That night it was killing pretty good too and i couldnt get to sleep so i decided to say a prayer because there wasnt much else that i could do because i was for sure not going to sleep lol. But then after that i ended up falling alseep, naturally I dont remember falling asleep, but then the next thing i knew it was morning and i hadnt woken up once during the night :) and then the very moment i got up to go shower....My tooth was killing again :) but its all good. It was basically like you said it was when you had problems mom, a throbbing pain. So the 27th we went to Piura and got it looked at at the Dentists office. It was actually a really really nice office suprisingly. So you dont have to worry about a lady pedling a bike haha :) It was basically a slice of the states. I was also plesantly suprised at how much i could understand even when she was talking about teeth and cavities and such but it was also nice having Elder Chica there because he was a dentist before his mission. So he knew what he was talking about.
But basically the synopis is....Im gonna have to get a root canal....yay....We are going to go back to Piura today in like 2 hours but idk if they are actually going to do it today or not....well have to wait and see. But basically im really excited about that....i wish you all could hear my voice when i say that....best part about it all is that the mission doesnt pay for tooth problems so....its gonna cost about 800 soles which is a ridiculous amount here in Peru and comes out to be about 300 dollars, which is a lot of money but im also not sure if that is still cheaper than it would be in the States for a root canal? But yeah so im gonna have to just use my debit card when i pay for that okay? dont worry Im not getting taken advantage of becuase ive got the Help of Elder Chica, orginally they said 1000 soles but he knew better. So it was a pretty good/bad few days....BUT the best part is when we went back to the mission office before we headed back to La Union.
We went back and BOOM there were 4 packages waiting for me! yay! Packages from Alli and Megan :D THanks thanks thanks thanks thanks! but you all are definitely in trouble because 1. youre trying to get me fat with all of the candy you send me ;) and 2. i am supposed to be a poor missionary! not a spoiled one! haha but trust me I'm not complaining :) ill share my spoils with everyone else :) It was definitley a good pick me up though after a long day, so thank you :) Still no word on your package mom and dad but im pretty sure that the zone leaders had already picked it up from the office so they should give it to me on wednesday. Then i can be even more fat! yay! haha
So while all of this was going on we were having an interview for one of our investigators, Chirstian, to be baptized. He's a really cool kid who is 18 years old and doesnt have a ton of support from his family, but he got baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday. It was really cool to see but now all we need is someone to give him tons of support because he is the only member in his family :s Thats gotta be tough so i hope the branch is always there for him. Hes got a really strong testimony though and has seen a big change in his life through the BOM so Im sure he'll be fine :)
Hope all is well with the rest of the world, someone tried to tell me that obama died the other day, for a split second i believed him....how sad it is that i know absolutely nothing anymore :) haha oh well. According to Elder Valladares, the second coming is tomorrow. Gottagobye Miss you all tons!
Love,
Elder Woodburn
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