¿Cómo están a todos?

Glad to hear you all had an awesome time on the cruise! I told you mom that you should have worn sun screen hahaha. now you cant yell at james when he never puts sunscreen on and gets fried haha. Im sure you all REALLY enjoyed that 12 hour drive from Cali. I nearly forgot how big the US is. Its about a 12 or 14 hour drive from here in Piura (the far north) to Lima (almost the far south) Peru is tiny compared to theStates. I love the pics you all sent haha. First off, Joel is wack. Im not sure which is worse, that bathing suit picture or his dirty stache that hes got hahaha. Did he grow that just for the trip to Mexico? hahaha classic. Sounds like you all did tons of fun stuff though. Was it all included in the cruise or did you have to pay extra? we are DEFINITELY going on a cruise when i get back ;) haha.

Well this week here in Peru has been pretty good. We went out and worked as usual and its been a little difficult to enter into houses lately as weve been knocking doors. But on the plus side we were able to have Manuel and his daughter attend church along with another family of 4. When we met the family, the mom and dad were living seperatly and werent married. They had tons of problems and we have been working really hard with them to help them have love and harmony in their home and its  been a miracle to see how they have changed. I remember the first time we talked to them both together they were constantly fighting and bickering, "he does this" and "she does that"! It was horrible . But we have worked with them and  encouraged them to read the" proclamation to the world" which is probably the greatest thing ever for the familes, ever since when we go to visit them they still had problems but instead  of arguing about it they have been laughing it off. Way cool to see.  They even came to church without us going to get them, so im pumped to see how they progress! Other than that the work goes on. As you can see in the pictures we had a service project this week. One of the  brothers in the ward lives out in the "country" and someone set his land on fire! so we went out and cleared all of the burned branches and such from his land. It was awesome...lots of mosquitos but really rewarding.

Thanks for trying to get me glasses for Elder Cañete mama. You tried and thats what counts :) youre the best :)

Glad to hear everything went well on the cruise. That pic of mom and dad is awesome! its crazy to think that the ship is really that big inside! i wanna go! haha but it really is true that everything is going smoothly here in Peru, my companion is from a cold  place and so the heat of Piura is getting to him and hes sweating a ton so hes got a little B.O. but i took one for the team and gave him my deodorant that you all sent me. Man i love that stuff, but i had to show him a little love and i know that it will pay off when the room  doesnt smell so bad ;) hahaha, dont worry, i hadnt used the deodorant, it was still closed when i gave it to him ;) hahaha

Thanks for all of the support that you always send my way. I couldnt do it without you!

Hasta la próxima semana!

Love,
Elder Woodburn

Do You Love Me?

Family, DO YOU LOVE ME?!

Oh man, Jeffery R Holland is the best. This weekend was honestly one
of the best weekends ive ever had in my life. It had a few different
factors that added to it but the main reason was conference. But i
will start off explaining that the investigator that i told you all
about, Manuel, is doing great. We went to go teach him this week
after having a week and a half of not seeing him, and we straight asked
him, Do you believe that the restored gospel is found in this church?
and he said, and i quote "I KNOW that the restored gospel is found in
the church of jesus christ, i KNOW that the book of mormon is true, I
KNOW that Joseph Smith was ordained by God, and I KNOW that this
church is true." I was honestly stunned. I sat there for a few seconds
with a huge smile on my face so happy and so stunned by the power of
his testimony and the spirit that it brought that i didnt know what to
say. I then asked him if he wanted to be baptized into this church and
he said yes. I honestly cant explain to you all how "chosen" this
brother is. He was prepared by God. We have done nothing differently
with him than with other investigators. He has been prepared to accept
this gospel. Then he was able to go to the Sunday morning and
afternoon sessions and afterwards i asked him what he thought, he said
"I know exactly what i need to do now, i need to take the next step
and follow the teachings of God" He explained that he had always been
searching for a church where EVERYONE taught the same true principles
and that he hadnt found it until now. he said " I listened to the
missionaries and knew what they taught was true, but now i have
listened to the prophet himself, the leader, and his teachings are the
exact same. This is the true church." I cant explain how amazing this
weekend has been in strengthening my testimony. There is no fault in
this church. It is lead by God! I know it and it has given me such a
greater desire to share it with everyone! I strongly encourage
everyone to watch conference, there is honeslty nothing in the whole
world that compares to it. I loved Elder nelsons talk and i came to
the realization, that  an apostle of Jesus Christ has so much confidence in
us that he is referring everyone to us in hope that we can help them.
That gave me a kick in the butt to be better. haha We were able to
watch the saturday afternoon session and priesthood session in english and the rest
in spanish. I understand it all in either language, but what i miss is hearing
their voices. When Elder Holland raised his voice and said "DO YOU LOVE ME?"
all it says is" me amas" in Spanish. Not the same at all, but he was
speaking so loudly i could still hear his voice in the background
haha!! . Everyone here started freaking out when they announced the new
temple to be built here in Peru and the change in themissionary ages. It was funny though because we were watching by internet and the quality wasnt great. So we heard the
announcement of the young men lowering the age to 18 which was awesome
and then we heard President Monson say "and we are now going to lower
the age of the young woman to ----" and then it skipped and we didnt
hear it! haha everyone was really mad about that. so we didnt know
until Elder Nelson came on and said it was 19 later on in the talk.
Exciting!

This week wasnt all that successful, we didnt have a ton of lessons
and in fact we were rejected quite a bit, but my testimony is stronger
now than ever before because of conference. What a blessing.


Thanks for everything! I love you all.

Elder Woodburn

HolaFamilia!!

Hola Familia!

Okay im just gonna start off by asking....what in the world happened  to Holly's hair? hahaha she got messed up! that might be cause for a lawsuit? hahaha thats what ya get for messin with your hair ;) better off  just leaving it normal :) Haha but other than that i gotta warn you   that this letter is gonna be a little bit short this week because i spent a little bit of time helping my companion find the right web pages to write president and all that good stuff. Sorry! ;)

So only a few more days till we go on the cruise right? yay! ill be   ure to pack up my bathing suit and all that good stuff...oh wait....hahaha hey at least James and Holly are suffering my pain too  right? ;)haha no im just kidding. I hope ya all have fun, take lots of pictures and be sure to talk to all the latinos so that they can make  fun of you for being white...or at least thats what happens with my
down here. :s

Im definitiely pumped for conference this weekend. Nothing quite like it, especially for a missionary. I have the hope that we will be able to put it in english with the other missionaries but we will have to
wait and see. you'll defintiely have to record it and watch it when you get back. There is nothing like listening to the prophet. Oh and be sure to send an ensign with the talks in engligh thaaaaanks :)

Well well well, Its been a tiring week here in Catacaos. Tuesday we went to transfers and i picked up my new companion, Elder Zevallos. Hes from Peru, from a department called Junin. Hes 19 years old and was born in the church. Hes a pretty chill guy and unfortunately i forgot to take a picture with him to send home so youll have to wait to see him till the next week haha. But this week has been tirng because the work is a little bit different with a new missionary. Now i know how Elder Lopez felt when he was training me. Even though Elder Zevallos is fluent in spanish, he is a little bit timid in the lessons  and doesnt talk a whole lot. To be honest the whole first day was basically me teaching by myself which wore me out a ton. But as of late ive been able to draw him out of his shell a little bit and get him to talk. Hes got a great testimony but is just a little bit nervous at times which is normal and i understand that, i just keep telling him that it will come with time. I definitley want to thank
you all for your prayers that youve been sending my way, they have really helped. Im just lucky to have gotten such a great companion. He may not know everything about the scriptures but he came ready to work  and now i can set the tone on how we work and what we do so its a lot more satisfying for me :) Chances are that we will be together for the next two transfers, or 12 weeks. Sometimes they change the trainer but it doesnt happen too often so well have to wait and see. If I do stay
here until he ends his training, itll be until the 17th of December :s    6 months in Catacaos! lol


Tell dad hes funny and i ask him comos das too ;) haha thanks for all the love and prayers and we will definitely have to go to the ogden temple rededication when i get back because ive never seen one either. nice work with that sandwhich! hahaha youll have to make me one when i get back! good luck!

Tell james i love that scripture, its the one that i had the ward put on my missionary plaque. Keep doing work bro, Love ya.

Tell Meg that she cracks me up! I smell like a man! dont worry, we  have water now ;) but my new comp doesnt like to shower cuz the water  is so cold so...he smells a little fresh ;) Meg, your cake was
delicious! thanks a ton ;) and i hope you understood the secret message i left on the sign! "you smell like pea soup!" hehe Love ya
tons Meg!

Mom, I love you thanks for everything you do. I couldn't do this without all the love  and support that I get from home. You all are the best. Im definitely thankful for all of the love you always send my way, it would definitely be awesome if you could all send it my companions way too because im sure that right about now he is a little bit sad even if he doesnt necessarity show it.

Love you all tons,
Elder Woodburn

Transfers!

 

A note from Mom... I have to preface this post by saying that last week he wrote home and told us about how they haven't had running water in their apartment very often over the last several weeks.  He went on to talk about how he has had to "bath" with the baby wipes that we sent him in a recent package.  In our email this week we made a reference about him being "the smelly kid in class" a funny line from one of Tyler's favorite movies  BIG DADDY...........
____________________________________________________________________________________

Hola Familia mia!

Yeah yeah yeah....I know i know...im the smelly kid in class. Last
night we had to go over to the other elders room to take a shower
because we still didnt have any water...haha We talked to the lady and
hopefully she gets on it because its really annoying.

But anywho, ive got a little bit of news for you all and also a
hilarious story of what happened this week, but first be sure to send
Jake Giantkid Miller a message for me on Facebook and tell him thanks
for the love and that im proud of him for going out and playing
football that Eastern. Very cool seeing him with the eastern gear.
Hopefully hes tearin' it up. But first up is the news about transfers.
So Saturday the Zone leaders called us and told me that i needed to go
to the mission home this morning at 8 30 to meet with
president....haha i wasnt quite sure what that was going to mean but i
went this morning and it turns out that....they are going to have me
train a new missionary! pretty exciting. Im not really sure what to
expect but normally there are at least 10 missionaries that come at
the same time but this time there are only 2 missionaries coming, my
new companion, and a sister missionary. haha So tomorrow ill be able
to meet him and we will start up the training and companionship.
Luckily i dont have to know a whole lot to train, just show him how to
work. haha All i know is that he is from Peru and hopefully all goes
well! wish me luck!

But the other story is that this week we were walking in our area,
Elder Garcia and i and there is this main road that goes through our
area called the panamerican highway. It goes all the way down to Lima
i think, but anyways, we were walking along this highway when all of a
sudden this guy comes flying by us on one of those motos, like the
picture i sent you, he was standing up on the back and he had a rope
in his hand. all we heard him yell was "stop stop" to the guy that was
driving. We were really confused at what was going on until we saw a
big bull come running up behind him and almost flipped the
moto....hahaha it just went barreling down the road and then they went
off and chased it down. They ended up catching it and getting it into
the back of a truck, but it was one of the most hilarious things ive
ever see to see a "peruvian cowboy", some guy riding on the back of a
moto with his rope. classic.

Probably the best part of the week was when Elder Waddell from the 70
came to talk to us all. I cant really do it much justice explaining it
by email but it was awesome. He talked a lot about the importance of
the mission for us and how we need to take advantage of it. One phrase
that he said that has stuck with me was "saber y no hacer condena,
Saber y hacer, Exalta" which translates into "knowing and not doing

condems, but knowing and doing exhalts". It sounds way cooler in

spanish trust me, but it helped me understand the importance of

obedience not just in the mission but in our lives as well.

Other than that not a whole lot going on. Weve had a little bit of
trouble with the investigators that dont want to come to church lately

which has been tough, but yesterday we met  one brother that has truely
been chosen by God, he is super intelligent and has been looking for

this Gospel his whole life. He finally was able to come to church and
loved it so hopefully we can keep progressing with him.

oh ya, I love Hymn CD you all sent! One day i put it on and put it
to random as i was getting ready in the morning. Then all of a sudden
number 10 came on. I was sitting there listening to it thinking "what
hymn is this? i know ive heard it before" but i couldnt recognize it.
But then all of a sudden the other part of the song started and
immediately i recognized viva la vida! haha then i realized that it
was Love story and Viva la vida piano mix. So funny but such a great
song. Thank you very much :)
 

Well thats all from Peru, Thanks for all the love and help that you
always send. I just wanna ask you all one thing for this week. Pray a
lot for me and my companion. Its gonna be tough for the both of us
adjusting and i wanna be a good trainer for him!
until next week!

Love,
Elder Woodburn

A few pics...

We are on the countdown now! 11 months and counting!  He hit his one year mark last month and its all down hill from here. He will be home before we all know it!   He is doing great and loving Peru and the people he has met along the way.  He is learning and growing and it is wonderful to see that in his letters home.   Thanks to everyone who reads his blog and for all the love and support you have all shown Tyler over the past year.  A special thanks to Alli Yost for working so hard and keeping the Blog up to date.   Here are a few pics that he sent home last week.  Enjoy!

Hola Familia!

So ive got bad news, good news, and even better news....well start
with the bad news okay? So the bad news is that there is this rule in
the mission handbook that says "bathe yourself everyday" seems
reasonable right? well....Ive been struggling a little bit with that
rule hahaha.   For about the last 5 weeks there has been water in our
room sometimes and sometimes not...so...its been a struggle to find
time when we can take a shower.   Normally its wake up and shower, but
lately its been wake up and see if theres any water...so its always a
nice suprise in the morning :) But that brings me to the good news,
you remember those cleaning wipes that you sent to me in a couple
packages? yeah well those have come in real handy ;) haha in place of
taking a shower, its been me bathing with baby wipes....hahaha I love
the mission. But that brings me to the even better news! Yesterday the
zone leaders delivered me....2 packages!!!!! yay! oh man it was
awesome. one from the family and one from Allison. Thank you to all.
youre the best. I especially love the CDs you all sent. Those are life
savers and full of awesome music. job well done :) tell james thank
you very very much. The sweets always help out but dont worry ill be
sure to share with everyone else.

Sounds like everyone is having lots of fun and taking advantage. Wish
Grandpa a Happy 60th! I thought he was at least 75 ;) hahaha Love ya
Grandpa!

Today was a pretty exausting day. We went out to the fields where
they grow their crops and took lots of pictures. We also went to a
pretty cool museum where they had a lot of cool stuff to see. I hope
you all like the pics. Its kinda hard to explain but ill have to
explain when i get back home haha. This week was a little bit tough.
Coming into the week we had two baptisms that were "for sure" and one
for next sunday that was also "for sure"....youd think that by now i
would have realized that there is nothing "for sure" in the mission
let alone in Peru...at the end of this week we have 2 investigators
with whom we have lost contact and another that has a problem with the
law of chastity. I got pretty discouraged after that but i managed to
get myself to keep working which helped a lot. All in all next week is
transfers so well have to see how it goes. Im pretty sure that Elder
Garcia will be getting out of here because he has 6 months here in
catacaos. Ill let ya know!


Not much time to write becaue i was writing the pres about the BYU  applicatoin but,

Love you all tons. Thanks for all that you do for me and the love you
send. Especailly all the work and money that go into those packages.
Youre the best! Until the next time!

Love,
Elder Woodburn

Whats new from Peru?

Hola a todos!

This week went well enough here in Peru. The most exciting part was
definitiely this morning though. We were in our room and i was writing
letters home. It was Elder Garcias turn to sweep so he moved the bed
and BOOM! there was a bat on the ground. haha Its funny because last
night i woke up in the middle of the night and could hear a bat making
noise. I wasnt sure where it was and it crossed my mind "is that thing
in our room?" but in the end i just thought "eh oh well" and went back
to bed. haha little did i know that it really was in our room and that
it was sleeping under our bed. Dont worry, it was just a baby and no
body got bit. phew. Oh another cool thing that im sure will scare mom
is that the other day at about 5 45 in the morning there was a nice
little earthquake here in Piura. it was probably like a 3 or so. so
nothing much but still cool. From what everyone else has told us there
have been quite a few earthquakes in Certral America Lately? pretty
scary stuff.

Haha i love the story about pops. Someone ask him for me if hes still
"king"? haha Oh so this last friday we had a big family home evening
in the house of a member and invited like 10 familes to come. So we
had a little message and played games and ate cake. But then Peru was
playing against Venezuela and if Peru lost they would be eliminated
from world cup contention so they started to watch the game. They were
all really interested up until Venezuela scored a goal and everyone
went home...haha classic. But then we went to our pensionista and ate
dinner too. We were walking back to our room and all we heard was
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
GGGGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL"
haha apparently Peru scored two goals and ended up winning the match.
the people were going nuts and ran out into the streets to honk the
horns on their cars and motos haha. the next day everyone was
defiitley much more happy. But now they play against Argentina on
Tuesday and Messi who is the best player in the world so....im sure
itll be short lived haha.

Oh and one more thing. Instead of putting Elder Stephensons name on
packages now, from now until the end of the mission you should put
Chad Alvin Rowley. Thanks!

Well thats all from here in Peru this week. We should have a couple
baptisms this next Sunday from that really awesome family that we are
teaching. Lots of prayers! haha. Love you all tons and thanks for the
constant support!

Hasta la próxima

Love,
Elder Woodburn