Hey Dad,
I hope your trip to Florida was a good one. It is really cold and humid here. This week was the coldest so far. What makes the coldness worse is that we are still without electricity in half of our pench and that includes our room, bathroom, and study room. So we can't turn the light on and we are without any heat source. It is colder in the pench than outside. It is butt cold. I love my sleeping bag, it is a champ. It is so hard to get out of it in the morning. The coldness is affected a lot by the humidity, it just cuts to the bone. Sometimes I feel like I wouldn't feel any colder if I was just walking around naked. At night I'm wearing my sweats and sweatshirt and my Salukis winter hat inside of my sleeping bag. Its not too bad. I just hope it doesn't get too much colder. It has rained the last couple days here. The people here are weird. If its rainy and cold then hardly anybody leaves home to go to work. They just hide inside under their blanket and drink mate. Its kind of stupid. The people don't come outside when its cold and rainy either so rain makes my job a lot harder. This week we will be having the baptism of Gabriel. He is a really good guy. Every time we have met with him, we have done so in the house of Hermano Cardozo, our ward mission leader. He has been great, letting us come to his house and lending so much time to help Gabriel out. Gabriel told us today that he wants Hno Cardozo to baptize him. We're excited about that. It will be a great experience for all of us. Then that night we will find out if me or Elder Maxfield have to go and if so where to. Its weird not knowing exactly where you will be every six weeks. Today we were going to play padel-its like tennis and racquetball mixed- with Gabriel but it rained really hard so we couldn't. The World Cup has made things a little different here as well. The people here are really excited about it. Everyone talks about it. Its pretty cool. There are Argentina flags EVERYWHERE as well as all kinds of things light blue and white. Its exciting stuff. It makes me wish people in the U.S. cared about it so it would be exciting there too. Whenever people ask me who I want to win, I always say Argentina. It would be really neat to see the excitement and celebration here after they win. It will be something that I will never have the chance to experience again in my life. I have seen parts of a few games. Its actually not as boring to watch as I thought before. Sometimes we go to people's houses and the game is on and we watch it while we wait for the food or for someone to show up. We watched the Italy-Paraguay game today and we caught the last 30 minutes of the Argentina game on Saturday. It will be exciting when it starts getting to the elimination rounds. No other playoff has anything on the Mundial (World Cup). The people here are WILD for their World Cup and I imagine it is similar in every other South American country and all the big European countries. Its a big deal. It makes the work harder here but its kind of fun to be right in the middle of it. This transfer has been a huge learning experience for me. I have had a lot more responsibility than most missionaries do with my time. It can be hard at times, but thats the best way to learn. My Spanish improved a ton this transfer. I have dreams every once in awhile that I get home from my mission after two years and all I can remember is what I have actually already done and my Spanish is where it is now. Those are bad dreams. I always wake up feeling kind of sad, like I didn't really accomplish anything. I am glad that I still have a year and a half to work hard and learn and grow. I have a lot of good experiences ahead, something I look forward to. I feel like everything I have done up to now has all been training and my real mission is still to come. Its cool to look at where I am and where I was and how far I have come. The Lord really knows what he is doing sending us boys on missions to become men. He has really helped me along the way and been there for me when it feels like nobody else is. It is amazing to be able to be a missionary and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ that brings me so much happiness with those who haven't yet heard it. I know it is true and I know that it has blessed our family so much. I love you Dad.
Love, Elder Woodside
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