MERRY CHRISTMAS from Brookings Oregon

Photo's sent from a friend in Elder Woestman's new ward - helping at a Church Christmas service activity

Last days as an AP

Make Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Pres and Sister Young

Transfers are today and we are going crazy.  So I might be getting transferred, I might not.  It depends if a missionary comes out or not tomorrow haha.  No really, it looks like I will be training in Brookings, which is on the coast. I'm way excited. It's a way pretty place and I get to ride a bike again so I'm pumped to be able to do that to. I miss the bike.

This week was pretty good.  We finished up zone conferences and then worked on transfers the whole week.  It will be a bummer to leave the 3rd Ward.  That ward is like home. 

We had a way cool experience happen the other day.  We were able to give a lady a blessing this week, and afterwards she told us that she knew it was from God because there were things said in the blessing that only He would know.  It was pretty humbling for me.  Taught me a lot about just listening to the Spirit.

Hope you all are having a bomb week,

Love Elder Woestman. 

Oh, and PS: if all of you could bear your testimonies on my Facebook wall that would be awesome!

Oh - mom - skype.  What time works for you on Christmas to do that whole family thing?

High Expectations!!

What is up my family?  This was another bomb week with Elder "H".  We have been doing Zone Conferences all over and have been setting up Facebook accounts and what not with missionaries.  It's cool to see the miracles that happen every day from Facebook. Who would have ever thought that Facebook would be a miracle - but it is. Some of the things we have been working with the missionaries is to have High Expectations. So Elder "H" and I got on top of ladders and taught everyone on top of ladders at the zone conferences. Haha - it was pretty sweet. The cool thing is that we are learning so much from President Young and his councilors.  It's been way fun. Soaking in as much info as possible and writing it down. 

One of the cool miracles that happened this week is that we had another good lesson with Race. That guy is way prepared - blows my mind how in tune he is.  He just gets it. I love it.  We were able to have the lesson at Brother "J"s house which is always a plus. Love you all. Hope your having a great week!

Love Elder Woestman

Thanksgiving

Whats up family!  Sorry last weeks letter was only a line.  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and ate a bunch of turkey.  I was at a tight families home, they had some of the best pumpkin pie I have ever had - like literally amazing.  And normally I'm not one that jumps for joy with pumpkin pie. 

So, I have started to use Facebook in my mission. It's intense to say the least.  So many miracles can and have been happening with it.  Elder "H" and I are going around the mission this week to help missionaries with their Facebook and to get everything situated.  It makes sense that we could use it. I need everyone to make sure they friend me. 

Oh - cool story. WE were knocking on doors this past Friday and we ran into this guy named Johua, he is like 30 and going to school to be a teacher.  So he lets us in and feeds us pie with whip cream.  Way good - I am getting a lot of pie this week :), and he had a guitar.  So Elder "H" played him a song he had written about Christ.  Well the guy loved it.  Turns out he has a bunch of recording stuff.  So today for part of p-day we went over to his place to record.  And check it, one of his mics was from Taylor Swift's recording studio.  How cool is that.  He kept it in a nice wooden box. hahah.  People are awesome.  The cool thing is that while we were getting ready to record we were able to talk to Josh's friend about what we believe.  And they had a lot of good questions and took a Book of Mormon.  But what I liked about the whole thing and what hit me hard was, here is a guy who after 2 minutes invites us in, gives us pie. then has us come back to record a song - all out of kindness.  I love people.  I love how real people really are and how most people in the world are nice and genuine.  They want to help others and they want to have a good time. Good times.  People are awesome. 

Love you and I really appreciate all of you.  Thanksgiving really helps one think of what they are grateful for so thanks mom and dad for being awesome and always putting up with me and always showing me love - even though i am dumb a lot haha.  And thanks sibs for being there and always having my back when I have questions and for always helping me have a good time when we are together.  Thanks family for being close, even though we hardly ever see each other ( which could change by the way if we do what bob said once and buy a big farm and we all section it off - haha) but once every 2 years.  I feel like we have a way close family that is close spiritually as well as emotionally, which helps me out here and helps me to know how to eventually raise a family.  You guys are the bomb dot com and I am grateful. 

Love Elder Woestman

Whats up my family!

So the Elder Foster's visit went well.  After last Tuesday he came up to Elder "H" and I and told us that we had made everything go smoothly for him and he appreciated it.  Which was way nice because that weekend we pretty much were running all over the place trying to make everything perfect. 

Then we had a way awesome lesson with Donna. Our Elders Quorum pres and his wife invited Donna and her kids over and they made "Skyline Chili"!!!!!  How awesome is that. We had a lesson about the Book of Mormon and focused on the Book of Mormon.  Its funny how everything goes to that. Testimonies need to be built upon that because once we have a testimony of that then everything else just falls in line. 

We also had a great lesson with the "A".  He called us and wants us to teach his son so he can be ready when he turns 8 to be baptized.  It's cool because I worked with them last year and now they want to come back to church and get there son ready.  We were able to make a game plan with them and we talked about prayer.  Joshua, the son, agreed to say prayers every night with his dad, which will be good for the both of them.

Then we went down to Klamath Falls and the coolest miracle happened.  We were able to teach this lady - she is a single mom trying to figure out how to raise her 5 kids at home.  Her husband just left her 3 weeks ago - walked out and didn't look back.  The sister missionaries found her and then refereed her to a set of missionaries that I went on exchanges with this week.  When we got there she had told us she had been reading the Book of Mormon with her kids and she wanted to start coming to church.  We had a great lesson on just how the gospel and its values help families grow and how it will help her with her kids to grow up with good people that can help and build them.  Super spiritual to hear her growing testimony and feel of her yearning and desire to go for it. Miracles happen every day and I love it. 

We were also able to have a youth fireside yesterday in our ward.  It was a musical fireside so Elder "H" used his guitar skills and played a sweet song about the Savior that he wrote. It was a good fireside and the youth loved it. 

Over all life is awesome - working hard and seeing miracles. Loving it out here.! love you all,

Elder Woestman

So the homeless people in Eugene are crazy and are sleeping all over government property, demanding that they can sleep anywhere haha.  They call themselves " Who Ville"

Religious Round Table

Hey ya'll.  Today is going to be pretty short, we have been way busy.  We have had a general authority in town this whole week and been doing zone conferences.  His name is Elder Foster and he is intense.  He invited my companion and I to come with President and Sister Young to a stake conference this weekend in Roseburg. We went to the priesthood leadership meeting and he was way bold.  He was trying to get everyone involved that was there in his lesson but no one was talking and no one was even taking notes.  It blew my companion's and my mind that no one was taking notes.  A 70 comes in and everyone was just sitting there looking at the wall. !?!?! You could tell he was getting a little frustrated. What he talked about was pretty good. He was talking about ward council and how the ward council needs to actually council with each other. And then the auxiliary leaders need to council with each auxiliary, and then how families need to council with each other- and that's how we learn and grow. Tieing it in to how we need to inspire people and help them receive revelation. So my companion and I were thinking about how we can tie that into our mission, zones, and districts.  How we need to council and learn and inspire each other together.  The power of note taking = inspiration! hahaha. 

Oh and check this - my companion (who is Elder "H" now, he is tight. He plays the guitar really well and we are putting on a youth fireside this Sunday and playing music) and I got invited to a round table at a local school. The sophomore high school class is putting on this event and asking all the religious sects to come and teach about their religion!  How bomb is that.  So our mission pres asked us to go. The work is hastening.  We aren't allowed to like "preach" but they told us to bring religious script.  So we are bring a case of Book of Mormons - hahah. Oho yeah, watch out Eugene. I'm loving it here!

It's been a way fun week full of adventure and mayhem. :)

Love you all, hope you guys have a great week.

Elder Woestman

Transfer Week

This week was pretty busy week. We were working with President Young on getting all the transfers ready and planning all that stuff, along with getting cars, and housing all situated for all the missionaries.  It's hard to balance all the office stuff and working in my area, so if you all have any tips that would be awesome.

However, it was also busy on the missionary end.  Our investigator Donna had a miscarriage this week, which was really hard.  We were able to have a spiritual experience through it though.  We had a lesson with her and Pres Lowary ( the 1st counselor in the mission presidency) came with us and was able to relate with her because he and his wife went through that twice.  We were able to talk about why the gospel is on the earth; to bind us together for time and all eternity, and that we will see our loved ones again.  It's always hard in those situations to know what to say to someone, but something I have learned that as we listen to the Spirit, it will never guide us the wrong way.  It was a good heartfelt lesson. If you could all keep her in your prayers that would be awesome. 

This week we made bread - all by hand.  It is a less active member's recipe so we made it to get in their door - and it worked.  We had to go home early for Halloween so we made it then.  Then on Friday we took it over to their house and they let us in.  We were able to find out their concerns. . . the power of homemade bread! haha

Love you guys.  Hope your having an awesome week. :)

Love Elder Woestman

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

Sorry . . . . so late.

What is up my family.   Sorry I am emailing you all so late.  It has been a crazy week of transfers- and this is the only time Elder "J" and I have to email anyone.  I have a feeling you won't get a lot of emails on Mondays from me, but on random days of the week.

So this past week we were able to help President Young with transfers.  Talk about one of the coolest things ever!  It is crazy just to see how it all works, and how the Spirit guides it.  President Young started it off on Monday by doing scripture study on the importance of the strong building up the weak, focusing on the strong in the Spirit -  not always meaning the people who are the most out going, but the ones who understand and follow the promptings of the spirit.  So he taught us the importance of putting the strong with the weak, to make the weak strong.  Then this week just watching him and counseling with him about transfers has been super spiritual.  Like at one point we left during the day to go teach some lessons, and when we left you could feel 'uneasiness/ not rightesh' feelings in the air.  When we came back to his office Pres Young had made some changes and the Spirit of peace and calmness was in the air.  This whole thing is teaching me  the importance of feeling and listening to every prompting.  So over all, a great week of learning to understand the Spirit with more clarity.

I will send a bigger/ more detailed letter next week.  Thanks for being an awesome family!

Love Elder Woestman

Elder Woestman, Sister and President Young, and Elder "J"

THE CLASSIC LOOK TO THE RIGHT

Hey my family; how is life?  So this week was crazy busy.  We were gone for 5 days driving around Oregon doing Zone Conferences - which was pretty fun because after the conference we were able to go on exchanges and do missionary work all over.  It's always way fun to be able to be with random missionaries and teach with them.  One of the things we focused on during the Zone Conferences was how to plan.  A lot of our missionaries are new and so we are helping them learn how to plan effectively.  I never really realized before my mission how important it is to plan (haha) and to set goals and make your plans reach those goals.  It is a skill that is totally useful in life.  The Zone Conferences were fun.  During the conferences we did what we call "OEM [Oregon Eugene Mission] Idol" where the districts preformed Primary song skits on the stage.  That is always fun to watch.  

One of the cool miracles that happened this week was that we were able to teach a lady named Sandy that I had been teaching before and we had the lesson in the chapel again like we did last week.  The difference is that we had set up the Sacrament table and had the lesson right in front of it.  The bishop and his wife came, who are converts of like 15 years which was awesome.  They bore powerful testimony on how the gospel helped them and how to understand the Spirit.  It was an awesome lesson.  We invited her to be baptized.  She said she didn't feel ready but she could feel the Spirit.  So we explained that in as she follows the Spirit she will know this is true and want to be baptized, and she agreed.  This lady is so awesome.  She recognizes the Spirit so well - and having the bishop and his wife there was perfect. 

I love being back in the Eugene 3rd ward.  It's so awesome.

Hope you all are having an awesome week.

Love Elder Woestman

Phil

So this past week has been crazy fun.  We had one of the best lessons I have had with Phil. He brings my dad up ever week - hahaha - it's so funny.  He was like "I have never been so intimidated and so loved at the same time by a man I have never meet before."  So he wants to email you dad so I am going to give him your email.  We watched the talk by Elder Holland that talks about his testimony of the Book of Mormon. Holy Cow - was it awesome. Totally brought the Spirit right in and Phil's girl friend was there and they are going to being coming to church. Which is really big for Phil. 

We also had a great lesson in the chapel of our church this week.  It always amazes me how much the Spirit resides in the chapel. Those are the best lessons. They help "ppl" more than anything else.  Oh and so the sisters serving the ward I'm in had a baptism this week of a family. The grandma was in a wheel chair and can't stand so I got to help her son baptize her. So amazing. The Spirit was so strong, because after they shut the curtains it took a minute for the grandma to get up the steps of the font and the love that was coming from those two was tangible.  It was a great experience to be in the water with them and just feel and see that love. 

This week we are going around the mission doing zone conference.  So I'm excited.  Get to be in the car with the YOUNGS for a long time.  So it will be fun to see how they work.

Love you all. Have a great week.
Elder Woestman

Miracles Flowing

What is up my family.  This was a great week.  The coolest miracles have happened this week.  First was that we were able to teach someone the "stop smoking" lesson on Tuesday, which is my favorite lesson.   AND he is still going strong. 

Then on Wednesday and Thursday we had a seniors conference.  So mom and dad - when you go on a mission I have some stuff for you! 

Then on friday we were driving and had 20 minutes before we had to leave for an exchange, and we felt prompted to go visit a lady that I had worked with a year ago, (actually dad you meet her in the grocery store when you were here) and when we went over there she was way surprised and said she had been struggling and praying the lasy couple days.  She ended up coming to church yesterday and loved it.  It was cool because the Ward went up to her and welcomed her.  It always feels good when the Ward notices a new person and says hi to them.  Miracles flowing. 

We also went on exchanges on the coast this week which is always fun.!  Over all a great week, and we have a good week coming up.

Love ya, Elder Woestman

Awesome - Awesome!

Missionary Training Conference - Elder Woestman is the gray suit in the middle of the circle

Serious Body Building Training 

Seeing Oregon  - Elder Woestman is in the back in the center to the right in the light gray t-shirt

This was an awesome week.  We had a sisters' training and a new missionary training conference.  So fun.  We had like a hundred missionaries that we did training with and then we have a senior couple coming in this week.  Also we were able to go on an exchange with the Jacksonville missionaries which was fun because we were able to see some of the people i used to work with - and one came to church.  The missionaries text me today and said that after one of the talks he (the investigator) stood up and screamed 'amen' hahahaha.   So awesome!

Also this week we were able to see one of our most recent convert families that i worked with last year and we had an awesome lesson on the Atonement with them.  Felt the Spirit so strong.  The Atonement is awesome.  It always blows my mind how much it covers.

One thing that we have noticed is that we have been with all these new missionaries -  they don't know how to study or even take notes.  So we are going around and meeting with all the zone leaders and doing a study with them that then they will do with all their district leaders and then the district leaders will do the training with all the missionaries (PPLs) in their district.  It was cool because the first people we did the training with were the missionaries down in Jacksonville and it went so well.  We get an hour to study and if it is done right it goes by so fast.  Blows my mind - and the Spirit just flows with ideas for the people that we work with. 

What else?  Oh check it - there is a soda shop!!!!! yupp a soda shop. And they have a bigilion amounts of cream soda selection.  I fell in love.  So I bought 6. I couldn't afford a bigillion.

We are teaching a zone conference in a couple weeks and part of it is building unity games.  Any good ideas?   I love you all.  Thanks for being awesome!

Elder Woestman

Assistant to the Mission President

So this week was crazy busy.  I was made the new Assistant to the Mission President so I have been helping with trainers.  On Tuesday we had a district leader training. . . . on Wednesday we had a new missionary training day.  We had 37 new missionaries show up this past week.  So that was awesome - and they are all like 18 years old, which is pretty intense - but they are fun.  We were able to focus a lot on trusting your new trainer and how they can trust them.  Then Wednesday night we had to bus all these new missionaries all over the mission.  So we slept in Medford and then drove up Thursday morning to get things situated here. haha.  

It's just been a crazy busy week.  I am coming to realize that I won't have a lot of time in my area because I will be working all over the mission.  My companion and I are going to have to be planning super well so we can get everything in that we need, like visiting all of our people.  One good thing is that because I was already here in Eugene, I know a lot of the people.  And I can start things back up where I left off with some of the people.   We have been able to make contact with some of the people I used to be teaching and set up lessons with them.  I was able to see my man Phil this week and we are going to see him again tomorrow.  He is doing good, but I am super busy so it will be tough to meet with him on a regular basis.

The cool thing about what I get to do now as an Assistant is that I get to see how President Young works.  It's been fun being with him and Sister Young.  They crack me up.  They are awesome and it's increased my testimony on how much they care about our mission and how the Lord calls inspired people to run his mission.  It's fun. 

So I am trying to make mission conferences fun, so if any of you have any ideas for good group bonding games, or activities that tie into the gospel email them to me. 

Love you all!!!!!

Elder Ben Woestman

Eugene 3rd Ward - Here I come!!

Thanks for the birthday packages and cards!

This week was a crazy awesome week.  Kayla got baptized!!!!!!!  Super awesome.  I was able to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost which was the craziest awesome thing ever! Also I got my Oregon drivers license so I'm an official Oregonian. Whats up!

Oh I got transferred....................to the Eugene 3rd ward!!!!!!!!!!! How sweet is that.  So I get to be back in the 3rd ward.  So pumped - and my companion is awesome.  But I have to help with transfers so I can't email a lot. 

Love you all and I will email more next week.  And thanks again for the birthday stuff!!!  You're all awesome.

Love, Elder Woestman 

My first Confirmation

So this was a crazy week.  We bought some of the new scrips for our investigator to get baptized this weekend.  She is awesome - the elect.  It blows Elder "M's" and my mind all the time.   AND - she asked me to give her the Gift Of the Holy Ghost.  Which I have never done before so I am excited and a little nervous, but mostly excited.  

We also had the coolest thing happen at "family home evening" this week.  We were playing kick ball (which my team won by the way, no big deal) and a Chinese couple walks by and was watching.  We invited them to play and the husband was so ready - we only had five people on our team and the other team had like 12 ( we don't know how to count very well - haha) and so he played on our team.  He had a great time and he gave us his number and told us he would love to play again. The good thing is that our Chinese missionary who actually can speak it (haha) is coming back soon so he can finish what we try to get rolling. 

What else happened this week. .... o Elder "M" and I got a new companion.  One of the elders in our zone got his visa to Brazil so we are with his companion until the end of week -which is fun because he is a good guy and its fun covering two wards. 

Over all - good week. I love this place. Things are going great. Love you all and tell the Grandmas, Aunt Dot and Brother Wardwell I love them. 

Elder Woestman

Fraternity . . .

This was a great week.  We found 9 new investigators by our own efforts this week!!!  The coolest thing happened - we were knocking and this guy comes up to us and tells us his friend is on Costa Rica on his mission.  We talk to him and then ask if he has some time right now for us to share a message   He says yes and we follow him to his place.  We walk up to a frat house (hahaha) and he takes us in.  It was intense.  The place was huge, but because it's summer really no one is there.  Well, we start teaching him and then two of his friends join in and we stayed for an hour and they want us to come back!  We go over tomorrow. Its' going to be awesome - lol.  I never would have thought a frat house. totally built my testimony.  I loved it.  Miracles were flowing this week. 

On Sunday we had a less active member come to church that we have been working with a lot and that was tight.  Oh and my stake had a play and they had us help. It was cool because some families from my first area were there and I was able to say hi to them. 

Over all a great week. 

Love you all,

Elder Ben Woestman

Kayla, Jacob, YSA

This was a crazy week.  So many cool miracles.  It all started with Tuesday and how we were able to go on an exchange.  I went to another elder's area.  We had staked a bunch of lessons so he could teach people, and then my job was to find people for them to teach.  Well the great part is that he was able to set a date with Kayla, for on my birthday !!!!!!!, and then was able to find three people who have been coming to church who want to be baptized.  So it worked out great.  And then we were going through our stake young single adult (YSA) list.  We got a list of all the people in the stake from the ages 18 -30 - regardless if their records are in the YSA ward or their home wards.  We went to go visit a kid named Jacob.  We set up a lesson and when we showed up he had invited his girlfriend to come.  We were able to teach the Restoration and it went really good.  They both came to church and loved it.  Then one of our members invited them over for dinner (with out us even knowing or asking her to do that) and they loved that.  We had already had a lesson planned out for them for Sunday evening and when we showed up they were talking about how they had a great time.  We were able to teach the Plan of Salvation and we focused on Christ and the peace He brings.  We read 3 Nephi 11 and talked about how it would feel to see Christ and touched his hands a feet.  Such a good lesson, so Spirit lead.  I love miracles.  She now is going to be baptized on August 17th.  Being a missionary is awesome.  Serving in a singles ward is awesome.  Hopefully I can just stay here till the end of my mission lol. I could live with that.

Hope you all are doing great! Love you all,

Elder Ben Woestman.

The One

This week was great.  We had a a pretty intense zone conference this week.  We set a goal as a mission to baptize 150 people in the months of August, September, and October - and to do that we all need to baptize 1 person.  So we focused our zone conference all around "The One" and how we need to be responsible for the one.  Our mission president prayed about it and knows we can all have our 1 person if we do our part - which is a pretty awesome promise.  So, we are all working for the "1". 

Also this week we had an awesome miracle happen at church.  We had 4 people come.  And in the summer that's really good for a college ward.  One is a member's boyfriend who wants to start to meet with us!  Our first lesson is this week so keep that in your prayers that it goes well.  Also Kayla came to church again for the second time.  She is trying to figure out if Aug 3rd will work for her to be baptized - which will be awesome.  Miracles are happening everywhere, left and right.  It pumps me up. 

We are working with our zone a lot because they are all new and have no idea what to do.  So if any of you have pointers on how to help people learn to be bold I would love some help on how to teach that.  A lot of my thoughts go to what Dan had sent me already about how we need to inspire people and not run people.  So we are going in that direction for right now.

Love you all, hope all is well, 

Love Elder Woestman

Another Day in Paradise . . .

Ben with other missionaries at a 4th of July parade.

Another great week in the College Hill ward.  We had a great miracle happen.  Elder "M" and I felt prompted to go visit a less active member and on the way there we were walking and saw a girl and went up to talk to her. We were able to give her a Book of Mormon and then set up an appointment for this Saturday at our institute. The lesson went great. We felt prompted to share the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. She said it made total sense and we were able to set a soft baptismal commitment with her and then this following lesson we will set a date. She also came to church and our Break the Fast dinner and loved it! Miracles! i love serving in a college town. 

We also had interviews with the Mission President this week and that went way well.  We were told about it on Tuesday and that it would be on Friday.  And they told us that we had to prepare a 5 hour training thing for our missionaries while they were waiting to be interviewed.  So we focused it on cleaning our inward selves and how important that is.  We started by baking a lot of brownings.  Some of which were really good and others that had a bunch of hot sauce and terriaki sauce in them.  They all looked the same but they for sure didn't taste the same hahaha.  We compared it to how missionaries can look the part but they need to be the part.  It was fun.

Oh - and we had our first Chinese baptism on Saturday!!! how awesome is that.  He is so cool.  He was way nervous but after he got the Holy Ghost on Sunday he was so happy. He told us he felt calm. and we asked him after the baptism what helped him to know this is true. and in his not so good English said "I found out God was true, and He helped me with the rest" how awesome is that! Liu  is such a good guy.  He told us that he wants to bring his girlfriend over to  America after the summer so hopefully we will be able to teach her too. 

Also a set of missionaries ran into Dan H who got baptized a year ago in Albany and he told them to tell me that he went to the temple!!!  So awesome. and Phil ( the chaplain in Eugene who is like my long lost friend and brother for life) went and found the missionaries! Our APs are teaching him, which is awesome!!!!!  Miracles happening everywhere - left and right. 

Love you all. Anna your baby looks cute.  Punch Izak for me- he should be coming home this week or next week. 

Love Elder Woestman