Another Transfer . . .

This week was another fantastic week. We had some way cool miracles happen. The biggest and best was that we were able to get 7 people to church. Elder "H" and i have been tired of not having people come to church and dogging us.  So we on Saturday night made sure everything was set up for everyone and there were no excuses to not come. There is a lady named Violet and she has 9 kids and a niece. She is a single mom and we tracked into her. We have been teaching them for awhile and they have never been able to come to church because they don't have a car. So we talked to them this weekend and Violet wasn't able to come but said her kids could come. So we got a couple members to come pick them up and we had 7 kids at church.  It was crazy. We had them sitting by us and it was a feat and a half to keep them quiet in church.  They were all between 5-14 with one 17 year old. The ward stepped up though and took them to all their classes and made sure they were taken care of.  We even went to primary to make sure they all had a good time.  Primary is so flippen' fun.  We even got to be in charge of a couple songs.  And they loved it! The 11 year old even heard that there was going to be a priesthood preview this Sunday and he came.  So we were able to get him a ride and he was able to make even more friends. MIRACLES.  It made Sunday fun.  They love the idea of church.   Gives them a good place to hang out - they even are coming to mutual.

What else happened this week............ Elder "H" left me. He is now in Corvallis. I have a my new companion - Elder "M". I don't know him but i have heard good things about him.

Oh the temple was great, we went ice skating after and meet some little kids that played hockey.  They asked who we all were and we were able to tell them that we were missionaries and now all of them love missionaries.  Seeds planted lol.  Pretty much this is going to be an amazing transfer.  I am excited.   

Oh - my mission is getting split!!  How intense.  So in a couple months I might not even be in the OEM. i hope that doesn't happen.  We are getting more than 30 new missionaries this transfer. The work is progressing.

Love Elder Woestman 

In The OEM

This past week was a way good week. We had an amazing miracle happen this week. We were walking home and had prayed that a prepared person would be put into our path. We pretty much walked all the way to our apartment and only a guy on a bike (who we tried to stop but he just rode by) and another guy who wouldn't talk to us, passed us.   Then as we turned down our street this car pulled over and a lady got out of it and came over to us. She was a past investigator friend who had told us never to come back. She said that they had felt bad and wanted us to come over again. We were naturally pumped up and went over there that night. We talked to them again and they said we could start coming back again. And their 14 year old son even went to the Valentines youth Dance this past Saturday and is going to "Mutual" tonight.  The cool thing was that we went over there to see how the dance was and he was all excited because he danced with a bunch of girls - hahaha.  He was like "they all said yes ".   There is no better missionary tool than a stake valentines dance lol. So Awesome. We are excited to get them all back on track. We are going over there tonight and taking the bishop with us so it should be a good lesson.  

What else happened this week. . . .  We also went to the temple today which is a big spiritual booster!   That's why this is note is later than normal.  We had to switch our p-day to today.  So this is the end of the transfer this week, and Pres young told us that  Elder "H" is going to leave.  So I am pretty bummed out.  He is a way fun companion and we have seen a lot of cool miracles happen to us.  I am praying that at the last second the President changes his mind and keeps Elder "H" here for 1 more transfer.  

Oh - and we made a video. (see below).  A member put it on Youtube. You can also find it on Youtube by searching "im on a mission (in the OEM)" .  This is the rap Elder "H" and I made up and then we made a music video. 

Sorry about the short email this week. 

Love you all.

Elder Woestman

Video from Elder Woestman

Hopefully this video will be explained in his letter... but we hope it gives everyone a good laugh and that Elder Woestman didn't spend too much time making it :)

-Anna

Mission in "Methford"

This week was another fantastic week.
An amazing miracle that happened this week was when we were on an exchanges with CP 1st Ward missionaries; Elder "T" and Elder "F".  Elder T and I went to an appointment in my area and as we were coming out this little kid came running up to us. He is about 9ish, was jamming to Justin Beiber on a phone, and he was in the ghetto all by himself, and and says 'hey i know you guys, your missionaries right'. We say yes. He goes on to tell us that he remembers missionaries going to his friends house and that they miss the missionaries coming over. We ask who they were and he gave us the name and address and all the info we needed.  Then he goes and tells us his sage name is CJ and he love JB and Enimem haha but he takes the cussing out because that isn't cool with him. lol  This kid was legit.  So we jumped in the car and drove to the house and when we get out of the car guess who was there! The kid haha.  It was intense.   He said that he wanted to show us were it was.  We have no idea how he got there so fast. We drove, he walked. Elder T and I are convinced the little guy was an angel. Turns out the family was a less active the ward has been looking for.  And the family said we could come back. MIRACLE.

Also another cool miracle that happened this week was that we have been teaching a part member family for a while who has a 17 year old son who is not a member.  So we taught about temples and how important it is to go to the temple as a family. Then the son said that he would need to be baptized and he said he would pray about it, without us even saying anything.  So we said a prayer and the Spirit filled the room.  So amazing.  He was a little nervous and didn't want to set a date right then but he knows he needs to be baptized.  It was a way cool experience to be a part of.   

Also we had stake conference this week and and a member of the Quorum of the 70 came.  It was pretty cool.  He just brought the spirit of missionary work to Stake Conference because that's all he talked about and he challenged the members to do theie part - which I like :) 

That's pretty much it.  Oh, Elder "H" and I wrote a song and made a music video :)   I'm trying to send it to you all. Its Awesome.  We made it on p-days so don't worry about that, but its going to go world wide hahaha 
I Love It here. Love Elder "H". Love the Area.

Love, Elder Woestman

Sharing the Gospel

We had a pretty awesome week this week. Like I said in my last letter, we are having a  hard time with people drop us. So we have been working hard at finding new people, through knocking doors and through members. We had an awesome miracle where we took a priest to a lesson and after we left he asked us how he could talk to friends about the church. So we role-played it a little with him so he could feel good about it. Then two days later his parents signed up to feed us and we were able to role-play with the whole family on how to ask friends to read the Book of Mormon. It was pretty sweet. He and his siblings are going to be working on their friends. and the priest now wants to come out with us once a week.

 
Also we have a lot of cool miracles with Less Actives. We just got a less active couple to stop smoking. They have been non-smokers for almost 2 weeks now. and part of the stop smoking lesson is that at the end of the 7 days you have a party.  So today we are going over to their house and doing grape fruit juice shots (haha), because as part of the week they have to drink unsweetened white grape fruit juice which tastes really nasty. Then another less active couple we challenged to get married and work toward going to the temple. They are getting their marriage license this Wednesday and they made a goal to go to the temple. How awesome is that! We are seeing a lot of miracles even in the hard times of finding people to teach. 

Besides knocking doors we are thinking of different ways to talk to people also.  So we thought of the great idea of setting up a booth!  So we made a booth and we went to the city hall to get permission to set it up in a park, and they said we can't have booths. haha.  They said we could walk around in a park or use a picnic table but not a booth.  But they did say we could have a sign.  So we are going to use a picnic table and the signs which were on the booth.  Pretty much we are turning a picnic table into a booth and that's ok. lol - somehow that's different, but it works for us.

Something I am working on is using the scriptures more in lessons. Also asking everyone for referrals  The first one will help the Spirit testify to our investigators what we are saying is true and then they will be able to know the Spirit and recognize it, helping them know that this is true which will make them more solid. And the asking everyone for referrals will help us find solid investigators.

I love it here. I love my companioin!

- Elder Woestman

Jail? Anti-Mormon! Lost . . .

This week was a very intense week.   We had three sets of investigators drop us this past week.  One went to jail.  One looked up anti-Mormon material and will not even meet with us.  And the other we don't know what happened, he just won't meet with us.  So, because of this we went out finding a lot.  And great miracles happened because of it. We were able to find four new investigators. 

One's name is Isaac.  He opened the door and we started talking.  We noticed that he had on an Oregon Baseball shirt and because Elder "H" is a baseball lover it naturally got brought up.  We found out that one of his teammates/coach is a member of the Church.  We asked if we could come in and he said yes.  So we were able to share the Restoration with him and say a prayer with him before we left.  It was a spiritual boost.  The cool thing is that when I meet him I was thinking "what up mike lol."  This guy reminded me of Michael Sprague; so I kept thinking;  " I need to ask Mike what were some things that helped him know that the Church was true and what the missionaries did to help him the most". This guy reminds me a lot of him. The amazing thing is that we had been praying about finding solid investigators and then that miracle happened. 

The other people we meet were just as eventful as Isaac.  One lady was walking down the street and a kid right next to her said "whats up missionaries" so we went over and talked to her.  She wants us to come back this week and teach her and her daughter.  How cool is that.  Miracles are happening in the Oregon Eugene Mission. 

Oh and another cool thing -over the past couple days Elder "H" and I have been making a rap song. and we got it recorded lol.  So I am going to send it to everyone in the near future because its the bomb! lol   Don't worry, we only did it on p-day.  Actually the cool thing is the guy who recorded us, we are now teaching, so pretty much making a rap was an inspired idea :). 

Right now we are also working on a lot of less active people.  We have been able to help a couple less actives come back to church so that is a way cool feeling for me.  Less actives are just as important as investigators. as long as both have the right amount of attention things fly! 

Love you all.

Elder Ben

Back to Work - yah!!

So this week was a way good week.  You know my butt is good.  The doctor i saw said that it looks great.  I got the stitches out of it and he said that I can go about my regular days - which i already was, so it was good.  He said i will probably always have a bump there, which is a bummer because my perfect bum now has a bump. lol.  

On to the week  -  We were in a tri-panionship because the missionary that came down to take my spot chilled with us until today and he went back to his area.  He is from Japan and is way cool.  He doesn't talk a lot but is way funny when you can get him to talk.  We had to wake up at three in the morning to take the visa waiting missionaries to the airport this morning because they are leaving for Argentina, so i am pooped. it was a longggggggggggggg morning. and then we had to be at transfers.  But get this Elder Casey "C" - my trainer - is coming down to Medford, so i am pumped up.  And I get to be with Elder "H" for one more transfer so I am pretty excited. 

And get this:   During the week we were able to have some good miracles happen. One was just that one of the part member families we are working with gave us a call and wanted to have us come over right away. We went over and they told us that their grandpa had died. So we were able to help them and bring some hope into their lives. It was a miracle not because the grandpa died but because the family is now trusting us and calling us when they need help which is always a good sign. i was also able to take the son aside and talk to him. He is 17 and the dad is not in the picture.  We were able to talk about how he needs to help his mom and be the rock of the family. It was way awesome to see him take the responsibility of it and do it with a smile. 

We were able to see one of the guys the missionaries had been working with in the past.  And he even came to church this Sunday   Ii love it.  He was all pumped up and was talking like he was already a member of the church.  

I am excited for this coming week because we are going to be doing a church tour for a family of 10!!!  We are also teaching another family of 5, who have come to church three times, and we are hoping that they accept the challenge to be baptized. so pray for them.

Love you all 

Elder Woestman