Hey mom, I am safe and sound in Fortaleza. I left Sao Paulo at 6 this morning. My Pday is on Monday and Ill write you more later.
Love you,Elder Willoughby
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Here is a cool link to an article that Sis Mastracola found about the Sao Paulo MTC (Thanks, by the way!).
http://mormontimes.com/mormon_living/mission_life/?id=13367
http://mormontimes.com/mormon_living/mission_life/?id=13367
Dear Family and Friends,
Brasil is ótimo. I am doing just dandy. Today is my P-Day obviously. Today we took about an hour and a half long busride to Campinas to go to the temple. Crazy huh. It was in English mostly. It is beautiful, on the temple grounds you can just see these jungly mountains and nothing else. There is a big building right next to it that has the Distribution Center and a Refeitório or cafeteria. The rest of the building is for people to sleep in if they have to travel a long way to get there. Or at least that is what I´ve heard. So yeah I bought some g´s and a Sempre Fieis, or a True to the Faith. Yeah and we left around 6:45 and we got back to the CTM around 1:30.
Yeah last Friday we did this thing where we drive to the praça de São Paulo or basically the center of the city there is a big square/park thing. And we go there to go proselyting and Elder King and I placed 3 copies of the Livro de Mórmon. One of the guys name is Jonas and he just walked up to us and was like what is this book you have and we explained to him and we could really feel the Holy Ghost guide us. Another one was Jaques or it sounded like that and he was just about to light up a cigarette and we started to talk to him and he wasnt really receptive until we were like we are messengers of god and we have a present for you! and then he was surprised. It was awesome we saw 2 of the people reading the Book of Mormon for the next 20 minutes or so. Elder King and I probably understood 5-10% of what they were saying, but more with the people that see we are Americans and will talk slow for us. The park was really different. There were like couples just laying in the trees and there were a bunch of homeless people just sleeping on the ground. And its just so different and sad but awesome that we are serving the Lord here. Yeah this was a serious sketch ball neighborhood, try and remind me to tell you more about it later.....like when i get home.
Speaking of sad things as we drive through the city of Sao Paulo and see these favelas, or in other words just like open faced shacks stacked really high it blows my mind. Its just a whole new world down here!! Oh and the first day here was like super hot because we had our suitcoats on but it hasnt been that bad since. Our residence is on the sexta andar or the 6th floor but its really the 7th floor because they dont count the main floor.
Mmmm i am running out of time, but today i went out of the CTM and got 2 ties for 15 reais. thats like 8 or 9 dollars.
oh yeah and i will probably depart for fortaleza this friday like as in 2days.
well if i can type fast then i will leave you guys with a challenge because that is what missionaries do. read 2 nefi 31 and 3 nefi 27 and highlight the following words: gospel, Jesus Christ or any name that refers to him, faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, and enduring to the end. its fun. report to me next week. alright i gotta go but peace out.
Com um abraço,
Elder Willoughby
Brasil is ótimo. I am doing just dandy. Today is my P-Day obviously. Today we took about an hour and a half long busride to Campinas to go to the temple. Crazy huh. It was in English mostly. It is beautiful, on the temple grounds you can just see these jungly mountains and nothing else. There is a big building right next to it that has the Distribution Center and a Refeitório or cafeteria. The rest of the building is for people to sleep in if they have to travel a long way to get there. Or at least that is what I´ve heard. So yeah I bought some g´s and a Sempre Fieis, or a True to the Faith. Yeah and we left around 6:45 and we got back to the CTM around 1:30.
Yeah last Friday we did this thing where we drive to the praça de São Paulo or basically the center of the city there is a big square/park thing. And we go there to go proselyting and Elder King and I placed 3 copies of the Livro de Mórmon. One of the guys name is Jonas and he just walked up to us and was like what is this book you have and we explained to him and we could really feel the Holy Ghost guide us. Another one was Jaques or it sounded like that and he was just about to light up a cigarette and we started to talk to him and he wasnt really receptive until we were like we are messengers of god and we have a present for you! and then he was surprised. It was awesome we saw 2 of the people reading the Book of Mormon for the next 20 minutes or so. Elder King and I probably understood 5-10% of what they were saying, but more with the people that see we are Americans and will talk slow for us. The park was really different. There were like couples just laying in the trees and there were a bunch of homeless people just sleeping on the ground. And its just so different and sad but awesome that we are serving the Lord here. Yeah this was a serious sketch ball neighborhood, try and remind me to tell you more about it later.....like when i get home.
Speaking of sad things as we drive through the city of Sao Paulo and see these favelas, or in other words just like open faced shacks stacked really high it blows my mind. Its just a whole new world down here!! Oh and the first day here was like super hot because we had our suitcoats on but it hasnt been that bad since. Our residence is on the sexta andar or the 6th floor but its really the 7th floor because they dont count the main floor.
Mmmm i am running out of time, but today i went out of the CTM and got 2 ties for 15 reais. thats like 8 or 9 dollars.
oh yeah and i will probably depart for fortaleza this friday like as in 2days.
well if i can type fast then i will leave you guys with a challenge because that is what missionaries do. read 2 nefi 31 and 3 nefi 27 and highlight the following words: gospel, Jesus Christ or any name that refers to him, faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, and enduring to the end. its fun. report to me next week. alright i gotta go but peace out.
Com um abraço,
Elder Willoughby
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Oi familia,
Como estao? MMM yeah i am in brasil which is awesome. I am not sure if you know this or not because someone in charge might have sent you an email already. OK so Brasil is pretty awesome, basically better than the US. Its just really hot and humid but thats ok. today is our preparation day so we went out and i bought some flops from this one store. they let us walk around casa verde which is the neighborhood here on preparation days. one funny thing that happened on the plane is that there was this guy that had like 4 small bottles of vodka and he was super smashed and at like 10 oclock he let out a blood curdling scream for no reason and scared the whole plain because we thought that someone had gotten murdered.
the mtc here is pretty nice. its just one building with 7 floors, the brazilians are really nice and its fun to talk to them and its funny when they try to speak english. mmmm we dont know who are teacher is yet. all the furniture here is made from mahogany and is way nice. and its really hot and humid. my companion is elder king now and he is the one that i traveled with.
We can see like a lot of building in downtown sao paulo from our window. sao paulo is huge, i cant see the end of it. oh yeah and our windows dont have screens, they have sliding glass on them and then sliding shutters that are like metal with holes in them so its kinda nice to get the breeze, but we just always leave them open so we get a nice breeze.
mmmm i cant think of anything else except dont send anything here to the mtc. just dont. and yeah. so i gotta go but i love you all.
uma abraço,
elder willoughby
{I know Dave said not to send anything, but the President of the MTC sent Mom a letter that encouraged hand written letters. He will only be there like 2 weeks, so if you want to send a letter its probably ok! However, do not send any packages, or use anything besides the US Postal Service cuz it won't get to him. Also, I guess when the Brazillians see a package from the US they look through it and take what they want before delivering it. I'm just sayin..}
Como estao? MMM yeah i am in brasil which is awesome. I am not sure if you know this or not because someone in charge might have sent you an email already. OK so Brasil is pretty awesome, basically better than the US. Its just really hot and humid but thats ok. today is our preparation day so we went out and i bought some flops from this one store. they let us walk around casa verde which is the neighborhood here on preparation days. one funny thing that happened on the plane is that there was this guy that had like 4 small bottles of vodka and he was super smashed and at like 10 oclock he let out a blood curdling scream for no reason and scared the whole plain because we thought that someone had gotten murdered.
the mtc here is pretty nice. its just one building with 7 floors, the brazilians are really nice and its fun to talk to them and its funny when they try to speak english. mmmm we dont know who are teacher is yet. all the furniture here is made from mahogany and is way nice. and its really hot and humid. my companion is elder king now and he is the one that i traveled with.
We can see like a lot of building in downtown sao paulo from our window. sao paulo is huge, i cant see the end of it. oh yeah and our windows dont have screens, they have sliding glass on them and then sliding shutters that are like metal with holes in them so its kinda nice to get the breeze, but we just always leave them open so we get a nice breeze.
mmmm i cant think of anything else except dont send anything here to the mtc. just dont. and yeah. so i gotta go but i love you all.
uma abraço,
elder willoughby
{I know Dave said not to send anything, but the President of the MTC sent Mom a letter that encouraged hand written letters. He will only be there like 2 weeks, so if you want to send a letter its probably ok! However, do not send any packages, or use anything besides the US Postal Service cuz it won't get to him. Also, I guess when the Brazillians see a package from the US they look through it and take what they want before delivering it. I'm just sayin..}
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
He's there... like NO JOKE!!!
David, oh! i mean Elder Willoughby called Friday afternoon and told us that he finally got his visa and Monday he was going to fly down. He called Monday when he was Dallas and talked to Mom. She says he sounds great! He was suppose to arrive down there this morning around 9. He will spend 2 weeks in the MTC down there before going to Fortaleza. We'll post his address as soon as we can.
So here's to two years of heat like no other, pilot lights going out, tape worm, and David teaching the glorious message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
So here's to two years of heat like no other, pilot lights going out, tape worm, and David teaching the glorious message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
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.
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.
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.
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