Kim and Dany

Memorial Day Picnic at a member's house.

Dan's baptism

We got to help with the "Relay for Life" Marathon

So - again - this week was awesome. At the start of the week we had a sweet Family Home Evening lesson with one of the part member families in our ward. We were able to get the boy friend in and listen for a few minutes. It was pretty cool because he actually stayed and he hasn't really done that before. . . progress. The next day on Tuesday we had a way good lesson with a lady named Kim and her granddaughter named Dany. Kim is about 50 and Dany is 9. We were able to teach them the Plan of Salvation. Holy cow - was it way cool. The intense part of the day was that we had been having all of our appointments cancel on us and it was pouring down rain the whole time, so we were pretty bummed out. But then when we got to Kim's it stopped raining and we were able to teach them on their porch. just a little miracle that was able to turn the whole day around. We also taught Kim and Dany on Thursday and it was a way good lesson. We brought a member with us so we could go into their home. We had planned on teaching the restoration but the spirit lead us to just talk about faith in Jesus Christ and bear our testimonies on how the Gospel has blessed our lives. It was way spiritually. And Kim said we could come back ever Tuesday and Thursday.

The biggest miracle that happened this week was Dan H got Baptized !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was way awesome. I got to give the talk on baptism which was way cool to do because I had never done that before. Dan is just so gun hoe about the church its awesome to watch. He has already given a Book of Mormon out!

The biggest thing we are working on is using members. We had 10 member lessons this week which is way good for this area and we are going to try and match it again this week. Any time we have a lesson planned we are going to get a member to be there. We have been able to see a lot of blessings from this because the members are seeing that we care and are seeing how we work and are able to be a part of the work. It gets people pumped up when they get to go on a lesson. especially the priests. We have been trying to use all the priests once every week and they love it. Most of them have not ever been out with the missionaries before we started using them. Boy is that going to change! Over all - this was another awesome week. We had fun and learned a lot. I love the People here and I Love being a Missionary. nothing better.
Love, Elder Woestman

I'm A Trainer

Okay so this has been a awesome week. I became a trainer which has been making me nervous. I went down to Eugene to the mission home last Monday for training on how to be a trainer - which was way cool. There were like 9 other trainers there and I was able to learn a lot from them because they had all been out for at least 9 or more months. So I was able to gain their wisdom to help me (haha). My new comp is “Elder H”. He is from Arizona and is way sick [this is a good thing – like cool, not like unhealthy]. He is a really hard worker and is not afraid to talk to people or to just start helping someone who is working in their yard. I love it. On Tuesday night when we got back from Eugene we just threw his stuff in the apartment and went to work. That night Elder H asked some one to be baptized and they said YES. How crazy cool is that. So we now have a new investigator named Justin and he will be getting baptized in June. Some thing we have started to do is we made a miracle wall. Every night before we go to bed we have been writing down a miracle that has happened that day. We put it on a post-it-note and then put it on our wall. So - we have started a miracle wall. How cool is that. It will soon be filled with the miracles in the Springhill Ward of Albany Oregon. This way we can always find the good in the days and know that we have been doing the Lord's work.

This coming weekend Dan H is getting baptized and then the week after that Gary is getting Baptized. Then hopefully after that Randy will be getting baptized. We have 5 with a date and we are working way hard. We are working for 6 baptisms this transfer - one every week. If we work hard enough and follow the Spirit then it is totally doable. Which will be way good for Elder H because it starts his mission of with a good pace and he will see that when he works his butt off he will see miracles.

I love it here. The people are amazing and I am seeing miracles every day. Nothing better. A cool miracle that did happen is when I went on splits. I went with a kid from our ward named Vinny. We went to go see another man named Gary C who in the past has said that he wouldn’t come to church, but he and Vinny connected like crazy and he said he would come to church next week. Bringing members to lessons just makes everything better :)

Mother's Day

Hi Everyone - this is Ben's mom. Yesterday was Mother's Day so Ben got to "call home". Which actually was a 90 minutes Skype call (with video) with all Ben's brothers and sisters and their families Skyped in from all over the country. It was GREAT!! Ben looks great, is still way excited, and we had a wonderful time. The big news of the week is Ben will become a trainer tomorrow to a new missionary. We are very proud of him.

The next time we will get to talk to him will be Christmas - (he/we still email and "snail: mail weekly). So - this is the post for the week. Next week should be interesting as he shares his experiences training a new missionary, so come back next week.

The GOLD PLATES

I get to Skype home Sunday for Mother's Day!!
My companion and I have been praying for a chance to find a young couple to teach and we found two young couples :) on Wednesday.  It was really amazing because we only had about 15 minutes to tract after we had walked to the street we were going to.  At the first house someone opened the door.  We taught a short lesson and they said we could come back.  After that we did not have any more time to stay there because we had to go to an appointment.  It is just way sweet how the Lord blesses us - we only had time to talk to one person, but that was all we needed and the Lord prepared a way.

Our investigator, Dan H, is doing awesome.  We have almost his whole baptism planned out.  I get to give the baptism talk and Elder "C" is going to baptize him  - which is way sweet.  It is just wonderful to see someone that we found getting ready to be baptized.  I love it.  He is going to be an amazing member.  Our other investigator, Gary, is doing great too.  He has been smoke-free for more than a week.  He just went cold turkey which is way cool.  He has this attitude that if he wants to do something he just does it.  I love it.  Over all we have 7 new investigators that we found this week.  Which is way good because we need to get a new teaching pool going.

We had zone conference this past Thursday.  We had been focusing a lot on having the countenance of Christ. So everything we say and everything we do is to look and be like Christ.  Even when we are in our apartments and when we are just with other missionaries.  People are always watching.  I really enjoyed it.  President Young is just an amazing man.  He is a great example of how to lead by the Spirit.  It is amazing to see him work because he is guided by the Spirit and you can just see that he cares for everyone.  We also had the "OEM [Oregon Eugene Mission] Idol" with all the missionaries in the three zones.  Everyone involved came doing funny skits and songs they made. It was way funny to see all the missionaries and hear their cool songs.   We also had our cars checked and we had the cleanest-best maintained car out of all missionaries - so we got what they call the GOLD PLATES (haha) - which is just a license plate cover that was spray painted gold - but it is pretty cool.  Elder "C" and I were in charge of finding people to inspect the cars so we got a couple of our investigators to come.  That was way good because President Young was able to meet them.  After the president of the mission meets with investigators, yo know it is good. haha.

This week was awesome.  I love it here.  I am afraid that I will be transferred this week and get a new companion.  This place I am at, I am seeing miracles - and the companion I am with is awesome - but if I do leave it will just be a new adventure in another place.  Gotta love it.  Mission life is awesome.

-Elder Woestman
Mom - there is a missionary here who wants you to send him some good healthy vegan recipes that are easy to make and cheap.  So if you would not mind - would you send like 8 recipes to Elder "Y" through the mission office address.  He would be way happy.