8 Days Left in Ben's Mission

Whats up family - cliff hanger.  I'll see you soon!  Miracles are happening in Brookings. 8 of the people we are working with came to church on Sunday! and they were all non members.

Love you guys. see you soon!

YEAH YOUTH!!!

Whats up my awesome family?  So this week was awesome.  A lot of amazing miracles are flowing.  We had another great youth activity.  An hour before mutual all the youth came and we had a big lesson - three nonmembers came, and afterwards we asked them if they wanted to take the missionary lessons and they all said yes!  They just need to talk to their parents.  Still blows my mind about the youth in this ward.  They are so willing and are sharing the gospel.      

Elder "L" is doing great too.  He is getting a lot better at talking to people on the street and being loving and bold.  This past week we were knocking on doors and this lady opens the door and she calls us over.  We talked to her about the Book of Mormon, gave her one and said a prayer with her on her porch.  We went by her house yesterday and she has read 26 chapters in the Book of Mormon already!!!  How sweet is that.  She loves it.  We have a lesson on Thursday with her, pray that it goes well.

I love you all.  Have and awesome week. 

Elder Woestman

January 6th 2014

What is up my wonderful family!!!  This week was awesome to say the least.  The Brookings Ward is on fire.  I love this place. Elder "L" and I have been busting it along with Elder "A" and "G".  

So the awesome miracles this week:  We have awesome members who hooked us up with some service on New Year's Day (see pix below).  We went and chopped a bunch of wood for a young couple who needed it with the priests in the ward. (some of my manly pics of chopping wood are on facebook haha) but the great thing was that we were able to give the husband a blessing and they said that we could come back. So on Friday Elder "L" went with our Zone Leader, Elder "K" ( my old comp) while we were on exchanges over to their house. Had a great lesson and they ended up coming to church!  It was awesome.  Elder "L" is turning out to be a great missionary.  He is working way hard and is so willing to learn. I figure it's because he is from Snowflake, and if you remember Elder "H" was from there too.  That place turns out good guys. 

Another awesome miracle that happened was that we went out to find a less active member, and we were walking and talked to this lady that lives right in front of him.  Elder "L" talked with her about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She loved it.and said we could come back.  The cool thing about this was that it was late at night and she was off to the side smoking, but we still ran over to talk to her and the blessings of "talking to everyone" came.  Every day it blows my mind how when you talk to everyone, like everyone, that blessings come.  Even if it seems awkward. Love it. Love this place! Love Elder "L".

Hope you all have a bomb week! 

Love Elder Woestman

New Years Meals and Service Projects

Monday, December 30th 2013

It was nice to see all your faces on Christmas.  Thanks for being an awesome family!

So this past week was awesome.  We had some of the coolest miracles happen.  We were able to teach a mom and her daughter at a member's house - and was the Spirit there!  It was awesome.  The member family was so supportive of their friend, but also a lovingly bold.  We were able to give the mom a blessing with help from the member family dad.  Naturally the Spirit came even stronger. 

Also during church on Sunday the bishopric had a youth combined meeting and introduced the new theme for the youth. "Come unto Christ".  The videos were awesome and what they talked about to the youth was so good that one of the priest's girlfriends came up to us after wards and asked if she could take the lessons from us! 

Also we were at a lesson with one of the priest's friend's and the priest taught pretty much the whole restoration lesson and we didn't have to do anything!  It was awesome.  The youth in this ward blow my mind about how missionary minded they are.  The youth leaders here are awesome too because they are helping the youth stay focused and really help them understand the Spirit and how to grow. I love being here. This ward is awesome

Love you all, thanks for being awesome!

Elder Woestman

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