Saturday, January 23, 2010

Queridos Pai e Mae e outros,
Thanks for the letters Dad and the email mom. Its so fun to get letters and email! MMmm OK what happened this week. I just wrote a letter to grandma and grandpa so if i miss anything just ask them. About the package just make sure you send like all of my ties, because somehow I always spill on them. lol. OK so on Sunday Susan Easton Black spoke at our Sunday night devotional. Her talk was about Joseph Smith and his life. The Tuesday night devotional was by Elder David H. Evans who talked about teaching more out of the Book of Mormon. He quoted President Benson alot. One of the quotes I liked was like, "We will gain greater power to resist temptation as we read from the Book of Mormon" Totally awesome. This week we went to the TRC and had to do this thing in Portuguese where we picked up our investigator and walked them to the bus and talked to them about commitments on the bus ride. Our investigator was a girl from BYU who spoke Portuguese. UMmmm the Portuguese part went well except for a few awkward silences. Our lesson went well except at the end Elder Subacz and I tried to sing Secreta Oração. It was horrible and the investigator was trying not to laugh because it was so horrible. But the lesson went well. We taught the Plan of Salvation.
What else? Ummm Dad asked about the word Fortaleza, in Spanish it means strength, in Porguese it meanse like fortress, forca is strength.
Ummm hey if you could send me the addresses of like Hoefts, Gingrichs, basically you should just send me a ward list from Pennsylvania. Ummmmm yeah I hate email time because I can never think of what I need to write.
Oh you should watch Irma Tymyschenko's father's general conference talk. His name is Elder Godoy and I can't remember when he talked. Well thank everybody for sending me mail. I love reading mail. Oh yeah and post this on my blog if you can.

Saudades,
Elder Willoughby

PS- Courtney tell Brittany she can write me.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Oi Familia,
Tudo bem? This week has been pretty legit. Let's see what did I do. On Tuesday L. Tom Perry came and spoke to us about the first lesson and that was pretty cool. MMmmmm, que mais? Our whole district moved into a new residence building today. Basically they have all the Portuguese speaking missionaries in one residence building I think which is like a ton of missionaries. My branch president, Presidente Bertasso said that they are closing down areas in Brazil because there arent enough missionaries because they are all stuck here in Provo. So pray for our visas! One cool thing is that Elder Subacz and I signed up to talk to the MTC teachers in Brazil via Skype on Monday. They are laying off the MTC teachers there because there is not anyone to teach Portuguese to. My Portuguese is coming well. Spanish is helping a lot because it is all the same basically. Especially the conjugations are really easy because they sound the same. I can meet someone and introduce myself as a missionary and say we have a message about the gospel of Jesus Christ and testify. I can actually do a lot for just being here 2.5 weeks (BTW there are some missionaries that have been here for 14 weeks). I can also ask them about their family and tell about mine. Elder Subacz and I did pretty well at the TRC this week teaching the first lesson in English. I always think it is going to go bad but God helps us and we usually do fairly well. Next week we have to do this fake situation at the TRC where we follow up on committments, walk the investigator to the bus, talk to the bus driver, and talk to people on the bus, all in Portuguese, and then we will be teaching the 2nd lesson in English. The week after that we teach the 2nd lesson again in English. And the week after that we teach the 1st lesson in Portuguese. I really am enjoying Portuguese. Well thanks to all of you who write me letters, mail time is so exciting. I hope I don't miss anyone but thanks to stephanie, courtney, dad, mom, kim, jane, adams, mike lewis, madsens (I got cookies and a tie and a picture!!!!). It is awesome hearing from you all. Another cool thing is that our district has been practicing Secreta Oracao (Secret Prayer) and we can do a 4 part harmony and it sounds amazing. So if you ever send a package, throw some ties in, the brazilian flag knitted hat, there are a small box of pictures of Christ on my dresser or in my dresser or in my night stand, and also there should be pictures of people on top of my dresser, and any pictures of you guys!Well I gotta go but keep it real.
Com um abraco,
Elder Willoughby.

Monday, January 11, 2010

He cracks us up!

Dear Courtney,
Well I already wrote you a letter but I will write it in an email, so you can blog it up. Well today was pretty awesome. We have Preparation Day on Fridays. Today we woke up at 6:15 to get ready, went to our classroom at 7:00 for personal study, went to breakfast at 8:00 where I had Hash Browns, eggs, and bacon, and a donut, and milk, and juice. We then had comp. study and then we went to the temple. We took pictures outside. Letsee what else? This week we taught an "investigator" at the TRC and next week we will teach another one that we have a fake Teaching Record for. Oh yeah here is something crazy. The BYU football player Russell Tialavea is here at the MTC and I see him a lot. Also Elizabeth Smart is here and I have seen her a few times.
So Courtney, you're awesome and whenever I teach about how the gospel of Jesus Christ can bless families I think about you and the rest of my awesome family.
So getting letters, emails, and DearElders is so amazing. It is really funny how excited we got. Remember The Best Two Years when they are getting the mail. It is basically like that. The first day it went like this when our district leader was calling out the mail. "Elder Munk, Elder Munk, Elder Munk, Elder Munk." It was really funny. Oh yeah and I got two letters from girls, and each time everyone in my district came into my room and made me read it in front of them. It is pretty funny.
One problem with our district is that we are all so amazingly uber awesome that it makes it hard to focus when we are supposed to be working hard. We will work on it.
Irma Tymoschenko is pretty awesome. She and Irmao Sanders are both pretty cool. Her father is a General Authority and his last name is Godoy? maybe it is spelled differently.
We didnt really do anything at all for New Year's or New Year's Eve.
Our Sunday devotional was by Michael T. Ringwood and it was totally awesome and was about enduring to the end.
Portuguese is coming along pretty well. I know alot already because it is really similar to Spanish just pronounced differently. I already know somethings like, "Voce seguira o exemplo de Jesus Cristo, sendo batizado por alguem que possua a autoridade do Sacerdocio de Deus?" and "Eu vi um pilar de luz, encimar de minha cabeca, que descendi......"
No word on our visas yet, but the Monday before I came 50 visas came. Some more should be on the way. There are a ton of Brazilian-bound missionaries here.
I cant remember the rest. Well pass this email on to my family if you would, and whoever else you want. Well I have to go!! Be super awesome!

Con um abraco,
Elder Willoughby

Saturday, January 2, 2010

1st EMAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Family,
I hope this email gets to you guys because I am not quite sure if this is the correct email. MMMM, the MTC is awesome. I wasn't sleeping well the first two nights but last night I slept super duper, I was so tired. We are doing things all day long. We get up at around 615 every morning. Usually we have gym after this. Today I played volleyball and last time we played basketball. We come back around 730, shower, get ready, and go to breakfast, which is awesome!!! And I eat pretty healthy. Then we go up to our classroom where we basically spend the rest of the day. We have class with Irma Tymyschenko who is a Paulista. She is pretty awesome. We also have personal study in our classroom and companion study and language study. We also have lunch at 1 and dinner at 6. We have Missionary Directed Time for an hour where we can choose from a lot of things to do. We also plan from 9-930. If you havent already gotten my letter, that should have my address in it. (You should send me my yellow and green hat).
My companion's name is Elder Subacz from Michigan. My district is pretty awesome. My district leader's name is Elder Birdsall and he is from SLC. Everyone in my district is funny.
Well the church is true and my purpose as a missionary is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It is also to baptize every living creature on the face of the Earth.
Eu nome e Elder Willoughby e Eu sou missionarios da Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias. Nos temos uma mensagem sobre Jesus Cristo. Voce gostaria de aprender mais? Lee O Livro de Mormon.
Well Mom if you get this email, don't worry about me, I am doing super awesome. You can forward it to whomever you want and have Courtney put my address on facebook and my blog and this letter on my blog. Thank you and dad so much for being awesome parents.
Tchau and Ate Logo,
Elder Willoughby