Life with the hippies :)

So this week was AWESOME. So I think I already said this, but we found a lady named Jannet last Saturday and she came to church on Sunday. Well - on Tuesday we were able to meet with her and she now has a baptism date of September 29th. How awesome is that! She came to church again this weekend loved it. It is way cool because this will be Elder "C"s first baptism and we found her. He will be able to see someone he found get baptized which is always something to be happy about.

Otherwise, life in Eugene is crazy. We don't have that big of a teaching pool so we are doing a lot of finding - working through the past investigators, finding part member families, and using the members. We are seeing a lot of cool miracles happen because of that too.

So as you all should know Eugene is full of hippies - haha - and weed. So we run in to a lot of hippie people - people who are stoned, people who try to be hippies, hipsters, you name it - it is here. Lots of different kinds of people. So on Wednesday Elder "C" and I were walking and we saw these two people just sitting on the lawn talking. Naturally we went over and talk to them. One was a girl around the age of 23 and the other was like a 40 year old dude. The guy was a little weird to say the least, but the girl was interested. We were able to teach them part of the Restoration and gave them a Book of Mormon. They told us where they lived. It was a cool experience because I could just see the Spirit whisper to them that we were telling them truth - and I could picture them in white. A pretty cool experience that I don't even know if it will make sense to you, but it made sense to me.

Oh - and last night we were walking and we ran into this guy named Chris who was skating. I sure am glad I skated in middle school because I can now talk to people about it so they feel more comfortable. Anyways, Chris was way cool. We were able to talk to him about prophets and how if there was a prophet on the earth today, he would want to know about it. Chris leaves for Washington in two days, but he said we could come back to his place in two weeks when he gets back. Then after we talked with Chris we ran into a less active member guy named Chris also. Go figure right - lol. So this guy has not been to church in years and he now goes to a catholic church. Right when we walk in and sit down he says; "So let me guess - you are from Utah!" I was like; "Nope. I am from Cincinnati and I went to a catholic high school." He looked at me weird and then we were able to talk and we were able to connect pretty well. It is so awesome to see how the Lord helps you connect with people. I am truly grateful for my parents raising me the way they did. It has helped me so much - from watching cartoon scripture videos to going to Elder High School and seminary - and then just making me knock doors as a paper boy when I was 10. It has truly helped me here. Thanks so much Mom and Dad :)

I am pumped to hear that our neighbor Michael is getting baptized this weekend. That is legit-ly the coolest thing ever. Tell him I am pumped for him and cannot wait to see a picture of him in his white clothes. It is cool to think that when I get home I can see him at church! Miracles, they never stop happening.

Love you guys,

Elder Woestman :P

Eugene is beautiful with Lots of Trees and Hills!!

SKYLINE!!!!

That green thing is a bean that grows on the trees out here. HUGE!!!

Life is a party, haha

This week was way cool. So many things to talk about. I had my first exchange as a district leader and I went to a place called Cottage Grove. The elder there that I was with was way awesome. He is a really good beat boxer. That day we prayed to be put into someone's path and we walked into a guy named Bill. We started talking to him and then we taught him about The Restoration. And then we asked him to be baptsized on the spot. He said yes! The power of the First Vision is amazing. He is on his way to getting baptized on September 8th.

The other cool thing was we had like 15 minutes that night before we needed to go to our apartment so we went on a "walk of faith" (I love these because the coolest stuff happens on them.) Well - we ran into a less active guy who wanted to meet with us again and then while we were talking to him these two 15 year old punk kids walked up to us and started making fun of us. The other elder said; "Do you know what I did before my mission? I was a professional beat boxer" - then he started beat boxing. Then I started rapping about missionary work. The kids' minds were blown. They had no idea what to say. It was way cool because we were able to change the way they thought of missionaries.

Also this week, we had Elder Neal Anderson come and speak to us. And we got IPADS. . . . . . . just kidding. That would have been way cool though. It will happen. But Elder Anderson was awesome, He is one funny guy. He made jokes for like 45 minutes - haha., but we also had Elder Rasband and the Presiding Bishop there - a power house group. This was my first time shaking hands with an apostle so I was pumped. We learned a lot about how important it is to stay clean for the Spirit. It is really amazing to me the power behind their voice. They speak so boldly and lovingly at the same time. That is something I am trying to implement into my teaching skills.

This place is awesome. The people here are way amazing. Elder "C" is amazing at following the Spirit. Life is good. Oh - and mom you will be happy because I bleached my whole apartment and made it way clean.

Love ya all, Elder Woestman

I'm in Eugene!

Hey, sorry about not writing last week. I got transferred to Eugene, so I am in the heart of the "Mother Land". This place is totally different than Albany - haha. The cool thing is that Elder H is now training - so I have a "grandson." [When a missionary trains a new missionary, the new missionary is referred to as a "son." So when someone a missionary has trained trains someone new, that someone new is considered the "grandson" to the original training missionary.] Right now I am following up training Elder C. This kid is awesome. Elder C doesn't talk a lot but when he does he talks by the Spirit. It is pretty cool to watch.

This ward is totally different than the ward back in Albany. It feels weird leaving Albany because I was there for so long and knew everyone. But this is just another adventure on this things called a mission. When I got here we did not have very many investigators. There is this one kid named Kyle who we are teaching. He was supposed to be baptized the week before I came, but he bailed out because he had not told his parents that he wanted to be baptized. He is 18 and is afraid they will not approve. He leaves for college in a week, so we are going to get him set up with the missionaries out there.

The cool thing this week was that Elder C and I did a lot of "finding". We were able to find 7 new investigators that will hopefully turn out well. We are really going to be working hard this week on getting our teaching pool bigger. This ward is way supportive. The cool things was that Saturday Pres Young called Elder C and I on the phone and we had a prayer over the phone. That day we found two families, how great is that. One family was a referral from one of the members which is always good.

We got 3rd place in the chili cook off, so thanks mom for the skyline chili spice packets. And thanks everyone for the cards for my birthday. Love you all,

Elder Woestman