Look at all these cookies we are making!!! Yum!!!

Here is the foam house

Awesome Pow-Some

Thanks mom for the Skyline Chili packets for the ward chili competition. The ward here is not going to be able to handle what is about to be made. haha. Watch out - Albany Skyline is coming to town!!

Anyways, this week was the awesome pow-some. We had a way cool specialized training this week with our mission president which went way good. He is such a good guy. He just radiates with the Spirit. We were taught that we need to leave our baggage behind and get to work - that we need to change now, and not wait. Which made me think of what Dan told me before I left about how when the Spirit gives me an idea to improve I need to do it then and not wait until the next transfer and stuff like that. Over all it was a way good training.

So the best part of the week is what Elder "H" and I call "COOKIE DAY". Pretty much we came up with this idea about how we should make a bunch of cookies and take them to all the people we teach - including less actives, investigators, and past investigators that we might be able to get rolling again. So on Saturday we literally made over 200 cookies (haha). We had to make all the dough first - yes, we made them from scratch and with love - it is the only way to do it. Then we went to the church because it has two ovens and we could bake them faster. Literally - the most cookies I have ever seen. We did not even use all the dough, so we still have a bunch of cookie dough chilin in our freezer. This turned out be be a wonderful miracle because we were able to set up a lot of lessons with people. We made contact with 29 people. How cool is that. Who can say no to a cookie, right!

Also, this week we found out that a less active member wants to come back to church and she has 2 kids who are not baptized that want to come to church too. Miracle. The work is going great here. It is crazy to see how everything just works out when we do what we are suppose to. Transfers are this week and I am scared that I might leave because this place is awesome.

Something else that is way cool, there is this house we found that is made out of foam. It is made to look like a mountain or something, so of course when we saw it we went and knocked on their door. We ended up talking to the owner's son who lives right behind the foam house - and he wants us to come back next week.

Also - we have been going to this older couples house who are less active and working with them for the past 5 months. They finally came to church yesterday and loved it. It was way cool to see how not giving up on someone and working with them at their pace gets them to make steps. Life lessons are learned everyday. That is something Elder "H" and I talk about - that the mission teaches us so much if we pay attention. We adopted the song from the movie "Sister Act 2" as our motto; "If you want to be somebody, if you want to go somewhere, you better wake up and pay attention." How true is that! In lessons if we pay attention, and watch, and listen to the people, the Spirit will teach us. -And people say you can't learn anything from a movie. haha

-Love Ya, Hope all is going great, Elder Woestman

My First Baptism

So this week was another AMAZING week. Something cool that happened was that we were able to teach with President and Sister Young. Those two are amazing and are jam-packed with the Spirit. They came to a lesson with us to a lady named June. She is the Jewish lady that we are teaching - and it went great.... Sort of . . . lol. The lesson did not go at all as planned. Elder "H" and I did not get to say much at all - and neither did our president and his wife. But June was able to tell us some of her concerns. It was just really spirit lead. Can't ask for anything better than that.

We also had a way good baptism this week - which was crazy sweet! I was able to baptize Bryce. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. We could both feel the Spirit. That kid is just "too cool for school." His dad came (he is catholic) and he came up to Elder "H" and I and gave us a hug and said "Thank You." He had tears in his eyes. Elder "H" and I both got the feeling that we need to work on him next. He is an amazing man who loves his family.

Yesterday we pretty much had "finding" planned for the whole day. We had the best time ever. We walked the streets of Albany and just made friends and then taught. We were able to get a couple potential investigators out of it. I love talking to people on the street. To me it is a lot easier and a lot more productive than knocking on doors because people are not as "stand offish". Being a missionary is just way too amazing. Miracles happen every day. It still amazes me now that can happen.

Love you guys, Elder Woestman

Pizza Party with Randy

OH-KAY . . . .

We went to dinner at a member's home who is a hunter and a bee keeper. The first three pictures were taken at his house. I am setting on a real elephant foot made into a stool!! The last picture is of a hot air balloon that flew over our heads one morning as we headed out of our apartment.

School Clean Up Day

So this week was great! We were finally able to meet with Anna and Joyce again, and a miracle happened. They both agreed that they would be baptized on August 4th. Which is way cool! And Joyce said that her 24 year old son is going to be coming back in town this September and he wants to go to church with them. Miracles!

Also, this past week we had to hand off one of our investigators with a date to be baptized, to the Singles ward missionaries because he will be going to their ward. We got him to stop smoking this past week - which was very awesome. That stop smoking workshop that the Church has the missionaries do works wonders. It is pretty legit!

Also this week, we finalized everything for our investigator Bryce's baptism. We had him teach us the Plan of Salvation yesterday and he pretty much had it down. The kid is awesome. The cool thing is he asked me to baptize him this coming Saturday. I have never baptized any one before, so I am pretty excited for this Saturday.

Something funny that happened was that we txted everyone in our phone who we did not know and asked if they would like to meet up. This one guy named Erick said "yeah" and for "Thursday @ 7 @ the park off of 4th." So we go and we txt him which bench we are on and he says that he is there. We call him and while we are trying to figure out where each other are, we realize that he is in a different town 30 minutes away! haha. So we were at two different parks. I thought it was pretty funny.

Also this week we did a lot of service. They have this thing in Albany where once a year they get all the churches in town to team up and help redo one of the schools. So of course, we go, and there were so many people there. It was way cool to see everyone in town team up, fix, and paint this old school. Elder "H" and I painted one of the outside walls. It was a good missionary opportunity too. We were able to talk to a lot of people and a lot of the pastors don't hate us now :) -which is a plus. I love this town. The cool thing about being here for 5 months is that I pretty much know everyone, lol. Today we fixed the roof of one of our investigator's home. He was talking about how he was doing a job with this other guy in town. He was describing him and I was like "Is his name Adam?" Gary was like "yeah". Haha - we have been teaching Adam too. Small world!

The mission is the "bomb". I love it. Nothing better. We work hard and always try to stay busy which brings miracles flowing. Our miracle wall is getting filled with post-it notes. Love you all.

Elder Woestman

Another Week in Paradise

Talk about a week of crazy awesomeness . . . this week started out with Miracle Monday. We pushed our p-day to Wednesday because of the 4th of July. So Miracle Monday came about - we set a date for baptism with a guy named Clint for July 21st. The sad thing is that we have to give him to the singles ward's missionaries because that is where he will be going. Oh Well! The sower is just as important as the reaper.

Also we had a crazy awesome training down in Eugene. I was able to see a couple of the guys I came out with who are now trainers and that was way good. We pretty much talked about hard work. Elder "H" and I are going to work even harder these coming months.

One of the people we are teaching is this lady named June. She is a "Messianic Jew" - so she already believes in Christ. She ate up the first lesson and is going to come to church this coming week. She is a funny old lady, but the amazing thing is that she lived through the Holocaust. She lived in a ghetto during that whole time in Germany. I think it is a big privilege to be teaching her.

The other cool thing is that we are teaching Lilly again. She has been gone these past couple weeks visiting the BYU campus. She is going to BYU - how cool is that! We had a really good lesson this past Sunday and she told us she knows the church is true. The only problem is her mom is a little "weirded" out about it. So we are going to be working with her mom the best we can. The good thing is that her mom knows a lot of the members and is good friends with a lot of them. The members here are awesome!

We are teaching another girl named Anna who is 16 and the Young Women leaders went to her house to invite her to Girls Camp and I am pretty sure she is going.

The work here is great. I love the people and everything about the missionary work. Miracles happen every day.

Love you all, Elder Woestman

Randy at his baptism. He is the short guy.

Strawberries

This week was the bomb.com. lol. I love it. So many crazy amazing miracles happen every day. First one was that our investigator Randy got baptized. How cool is that. When he was walking into the font he made the comment that he had been waiting for this for a long time. He is the one we had to get permission from the Seventy to get baptized - and everything worked out.

Another miracle was that we have been teaching this kid named Bryce and he is 10. His mother is a member and his dad is Catholic. He wants to get baptized and this past week we were able to set the date of July 21st with him. He is a way cool kid. To make it easier for him to understand, we taught him the Plan of Salvation outside using side walk chalk in the middle of a members street who lives on a dead end road, haha. We kind of made it into a board game so he could have fun with it and still understand everything that was being said.

Oh - and get this, so we had two new investigators come to church last week; Joyce and Anna. Anna is 16 and Joyce is like 50. They are mom and daughter. When we went to go teach them on Wednesday, Anna asked us how she could be come a member of the Church. How awesome is that? Miracles happen all over the place. I love it. The Lord has been blessing Elder "H" and I so much. So, we are working with Anna and Joyce.

Oh ya, so we are going to have an apostle come on August 18th. Awesome! Miracles, I love it! Love you guys, love it here, and the people are amazing.

-Elder Woestman

This lady is 94. We ran into her two weeks ago and said we would be back for her birthday with strawberries. She did not believe us, but we came back :) We were the only people that showed up so we were happy we could put a smile on her face. She was way funny.