Primary Program

SO this week was awesome!  We were able to meet with all of our investigators with out anyone cancelling their lesson!  How sweet is that!  Donna and he boys are doing awesome.  This week was the Primary program and they were supposed to be a part of it.  The older son got scared but the younger one jump right up and went up with the other kids in the Primary.  It was way good for us to see that the Primary is taking a big part in fellowshipping her boys.  That way they want to come to church.  We had a lesson at her place this Saturday before church and the boys were talking about how much they love church and how they want to go.  And Donna just goes in and sits by who ever in the middle of the congregation, which is sweet.  She pretty much introduces herself to everyone.  We invited her to be baptized Saturday.  She is having a hard time understanding why she needs to be baptized again.  What she needs is that spiritual confirmation that it is true.  So we are having a lesson at the church this week and really just talking about the Spirit, how it works and how we can follow its promptings.  We are hoping that she will understand that when she knows Joseph Smith is a prophet then she can carry that understanding over to the need for priesthood authority and baptism.  Pretty much it always comes back to praying and gaining that testimony for yourself.  

We also had a lesson with Sandy about the moral force of women.  The talk giving by Elder Christofferson - pretty awesome.  She now understands that women are the best thing in the world in the church.  She had a lot of concerns about that.  We had our ward mission leader and his wife come teach Sandy with us.  Always good to have a women there! 

This week we are helping President with transfers - always a busy week before transfers, and the next week is going to be crazy too. Love it.
Hope you are all having an awesome week.
Love Elder Woestman.

Herbal Tea

What is up my family!  This was a great week.  Donna is doing awesome!  She and her two kids came to church again this week, and John and Josh are going to be in the primary program this following week.  Which is sweet because it locks them in more with the ward.  Those two kids crack me up.  They are crazy wild, but when they get to church they sit quietly in the seats and when it's time to pray they are super reverent.  Their mom has taught them well

We had a great lesson with another family in the ward and it went so good.  We talked about eternal families and she wants her kids to grow up in a good home and have good principles. We are planning on inviting her to be baptized this week so keep her in your prayers.  How's the work going in Western Hills?  Are the missionaries staying busy?  Do they have ipads yet?  We are trying to get them in our mission - hahaha.  We really have no say in it but we can always hope right :P 
Elder L. Tom Perry said that every missionary would have one by the end of June. 

We also had a way sweet miracle happen in the mission. All the missionaries in the mission are working super hard and are being obedient.  The missionaries are being more obedient than ever and all have the fire.  They are understanding the importance of the morning schedule and why we need to study and exercise every morning.  Spiritually and physically prepared.  

So I went on an exchange with a missionary and he has got me hooked on herbal tea - hahaha.  It's nice because its starting to get cold.  Got to love the herbs!

Love you all !!!!

Elder Woestman

Oregon Coastline

This week was awesome.  First it started with a power house of a Monday.  We had an appointment with a lady named Elizabeth.  We knocked on her door a couple weeks ago and this was our first lesson.  We took our ward mission leader and turns out he had meet her and her daughter the day before at the park when he took his family.  How cool is that?!  The lesson went way good.  We were able to talk about the Spirit and how she can know that what we are saying is true.  She is looking for something she said and she used to live in a Mormon home in high school. and loved that family.

Then we were able to have a lesson with Donna - which went way awesome.  We were able to talk about the Plan of Salvation.  It was a testimony builder to me because what she knew as her inner most truths in her heart are in the Plan of Salvation.  She loved the lesson and she is reading the Book of Mormon.

We were also able to go to the coast with the Youngs.  We had to do some training with new missionaries out there, and because we never get a p-day President and Sister Young took us to see the coast.  It was pretty sweet. 

Church this past Sunday was awesome because we had an Area Authority there and he pushed for member missionary work.  It was good because it wasn't coming from us, but from him, so I think it was taken more seriously. 

Over all, this week was awesome.  Lots of cool miracles with getting investigators to progress.  Today we are teaching Sandy.  We are going over Elder Christofferson's talk from conference with her and talking about the importance of women.  I hope it goes well.  We are bringing an awesome sister from the ward who is a convert - and the cool this about this ward is that all the women are pro-women, pretty independent and strong in the gospel.

Hope all is going awesome. Love you all

Elder Ben Woestman 

A cool family we are teaching.

Sandy and Phil

This was crazy busy week.  We had a mission leadership council to discuss the needs of the mission, and it went way well.  We talked a lot about member missionary work.  And then we went around the mission and did some training with all the new missionaries on how to talk to people on the spot and how to work with members.  It was pretty fun. 

We had an awesome lesson with Sandy.  We were planning on teaching the Restoration but it went to the priesthood and why women can not hold it.  Which was a good thing because it is a true concern of hers.  The bummer part of it was we didn't have a lady there - just us and Brother Smith.  We did our best to explain it, but hearing it from 3 guys just doesn't do it - haha.  The great thing is this week during conference there was a lot of talks about that, which we are going to share with her - and we will bring a lady with us.  The funny thing is this lesson was the first time we didn't bring a lady with us.  Go figure. 

Then we had to hand Phil over to his new ward - which was probably the hardest thing to do.  But the lesson we had went well and the new elders are way good. 

Over all great week. Conference was "the bomb" as always.

Love you all,

Elder Woestman

" . . . bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

This was a great week.  Sorry about not emailing till Thursday last week.  I'll  have some weeks like that.  So we had a way cool miracle happen this past week.  We ran into a lady named Donna a couple weeks ago, and this past Saturday we had arranged to have a member come with us and then he would be able to give her and her kids a ride to church on Sunday. Right when we got there on Saturday the member was like 'I am here to bring you to church' and because he asked and was so natural about it, she took it so well and just naturally assumed that that's what she would be doing the next day - haha.  So when you go out with the missionaries make sure you speak what needs to be said in a kind genuine manner and then miracles happen. Donna and her kids came and they had the best time, even in primary. Elder "J" and I loved it because we were able to go to primary haha.  So fun.  And Donna went to primary to watch what her kids would be doing and it was perfect for her because she was at ease and it was easy to understand. 

We just got a senior couple that came into our ward.  So we have 6 missionaries in the ward I am in.  Because it was fast Sunday we all bore our testimonies.  Our mission president  wants every missionary to bear their testimonies at every fast and testimony meeting, but to only take 30 seconds.  Short, powerful, to the point.  So we all got up and start off the testimony meeting and then the rest of it is about missionary work.  It was way awesome.  And then for the youth Sunday school class they did a combined thing and had a testimony meeting in there and it was mostly about missionary work.  So it was a missionary Sunday. which was way awesome. 

Over all a way good week - full of transfers and cool miracles.

One of the things that Elder "J" and I are working on is helping our missionaries be more in-line with the presiding authority. I got an awesome email from Dan which talked about missionaries in ward council. and then Elder  "J" and I were on the church's new web site about "hastening the work of salvation" and the big thing that hit us is that when members and missionaries have the same goal, that's when the miracles happen.  And when people listen to those that hold the keys for their area; mission pres, stake pres and bishops - and work toward the goals that they have - that's when the miracles happen, because we are all in the business of the 'work of salvation'.  Whether it's finding people to teach, going to less active members' house's and inviting them to come to church, our helping the ones who are active say active - its all the purpose of God; to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.  And as we come together and understand we have the same goal in mind and that's when the miracles flow.  I love it.  One of the things that Elder Uchtdorf says on that web site is that the whole reason that Heavenly Father created the universe is to save and exalt mankind. WOW.  Intense.  We thought about that and still are talking about that.  It made us think more and we are working on the members and missionaries here to truly understand that the purpose of the universe is to save and exalt mankind.  Good stuff.  So make sure you have your missionaries over and are giving them people to visit, because miracles will flow :)

Love you all - have an awesome week.

- Elder Woestman