A-Town is Awesome

So - a member's dog died and I got the job of burying it.

Our area's missionaires

"Master Disc Golfers!"

This week is way awesome. We have been trying to do church tours these past few weeks and we were 0 for 11 with people showing up. But we finally got one this week :) and it went well. The night before we felt prompted to call a family and see if they could come. They said yes, and they were the best people ever. Tabitha and the "C" family came with us. Sister "C" was the bomb and connected so well with Tabitha. We finished the tour with the chapel and pretty much the Spirit over came everyone - it was so strong that Tabitha started crying tears of joy. It was a way amazing felling / lesson.

Also this week we were called by a member who said that her 10 year old son wants to be baptized. So we are working with him. He wants to learn so much, but he is having a hard time in Sunday School because all the kids know the storeis of the Book of Mormon, but he doesn't. So we found a member who has all those scritpure cartoon movies and tehy are going to let him use those as a quick way to learn the stories.

Something Elder "H" and I have been doing is teaching members the restoration. This has two reasons; one, so that Elder "H" and I can become better teachers and the members can help us - and two, so that the members can feel the Spirit in the lesson testifying to them. After the lesson we challenge them to think of people they would want to have taught in their homes. The amazing thing is that Elder "H" and I pick the families out by praying and asking the Lord who we should ask. We have one done it with 4 families and two already have people and are setting up times for us to come teach the restoration in their home. It is just amazing how much the Lord is blessing us. There is never a dull moment and the ward si so excited about helping us. It is pretty much the coolest thing ever to be a missionary.

Transfers also came up this week. Elder "H" and I are staying together so I get to finish up officially training him, even though he is really training me. This guy is way amazing. Every morning this week we have been able to have a spiritual companionship study. I am truly grateful for the chance to be his companion and learn from him every day. Something we are working on is just to be able to follow the Spirit in everything we do - everything. No letting ourselves get distracted. Which is hard for me because movie quotes are always popping in my mind, haha. But it is still way good and we are seeing miracles happen when we work hard. The A-town is awesome. I love it here.

-Elder Woestman

Putting people on our path

So sorry about not writing last week, the library was closed all week, so I wasn't able to email. I did not forget. lol. So the past two weeks have been the bomb diggity. We had a huge miracle happen last Saturday. We were tracting and while we were walking home we decided to take a different way back. Right when we are about to turn down our street, we hear "livin in a ganstas paradise" playing in the background. We look over and there is this older guy listening to it in his drive way. So naturally we go talk to him :). Turns out his name is Rick and he has seen us pass by before and sat out that day to see if we would again and if we would talk to him. He had gone to church in Arizona but when he moved to Oregon he did not know where one was. We talked to him and his wife and invited them to come to church. They said yes :). They loved it. This past week when we talked to them they could not stop talking about it and they could just feel the Spirit so strong at Church. Then this Saturday we had another lesson and Elder "H" asked Rick and Lois if they would be baptized on July 14th. They said yes. It was amazing. And it is all because we went another way. Crazy how the Lord puts people in our paths. Everyday we run into someone that will listen to us. I love it. It is so amazing.

Also this week we have been putting our members to the test. We have picked about 5 families that we have been going over to and teaching them the restoration. Then we ask them to have someone they know be taught in their homes. We give them a date that we have prayed about that they will be able to do it by. So we will be getting a couple solid referrals from members and be able to teach them in their homes. Its been going very well. The members in our ward are sweet. They are always willing to help us and give us food.

We also had interviews with our president this past week which always goes great. Pres Young is probably the most in tune to the spirit guy I have ever meet. Part of the lesson that we learned that day was how to keep the spirit with us at all times. He gave us a copy of a talk that talked about if we want the spirit to be by our side at all times we need to be even more than 100 percent obedient. Anything that distracts us from the work we need to drop. so what we do is fast to figure out ten things we need help on. Then for the next 40 days we 'fast' from those 40 things and every day and night pray for strength to not do them and then pray for forgiveness if we do do it and figure out how to not do it the next day. By the end of the 40 days if we work for it we won't have the problems any more. How cool is that. So we are putting it to the test.

Hope all is going well and everyone is doing great. I love you guys.

Elder Woestman

Fast Sunday

Once again this week was the bees knees, the cats pajamas. . . . We had a week of miracles. Ever since Elder H and I have started the :miracle wall" we have been able to see miracles happen ever day. It pumps us up for the next day and helps us realize that everyday something amazing happened.

So Dan H, the guy who was baptized last week, came to a lesson this week with us. He is so golden. He is just able to follow the Spirit and is able to connect with people. And it's way cool because he is a new convert. The man who we taught that day dropped us but it was just way good for Dan because the experience was able to build his testimony even more. We are going to be using him like once or twice a week.

Also this week we taught a man named Adam. He is way good. He has been wondering about his life and where he is going. So we shared the plan of salvation. He agreed with everything. It was amazing.

Also Kim and Dany are doing great. We could only teach them for like 20 minutes this week and we did the lesson on the restoration. It was crazy awesome how the Lord blesses us so we can teach what we need to teach. We all felt the Spirit when Elder H shared the first vision and Kim said that it all feels right. How awesome is that.

We are just working really hard and trying to find new investigators so we can continue to teach people. Which leads me to the best fast Sunday ever. So we get to church and none of our investigators show up, which is a big bummer because we had like 5 people who said they would be able to come. Then after sacrament meeting one of the bishopric pulls us in the hall way and says that there is a lady and her son in the hall who know who we are. We were like "what?" We had not been teaching a lady and a son. We walk over to where they are at and turns out that it is a boy we had been trying to get to do boy scouts. We find out that the mom had talked to the missionaries in Nephi Utah and went to church out there but then moved. So when she found out that her son was talking to us she wanted to come back. How crazy sick is that. A miracle that walked off the street. So we have started teaching them and are going back on Tuesday. But the best part of yesterday was when we went to this family . . they have a friend named Lily who had gone to church dances, youth conference, church, trek and then stopped coming for awhile. When I found out about Lily a couple weeks ago it hit me personally. So we were able to have Lily come to this specific family's for dinner. and afterwards I was able to share some personal stories with them and about my friends, and to make a long story short we are able to now teach Lily, She is even going to BYU next year. How awesome is that. It's going to be a way good experience because I can see how the Lord has prepared me to help with Lily.

Man, I love this missionary stuff haha. It's a blast and every day is a new adventure and I never know what is going to happen but I love it. The people here are amazing, The ward is amazing. Mission life is amazing.
Love Elder Woestman