It was great to talk to the whole Fam Friday - Christmas Day, so I don't really know what to say this week. So the week was dang sweet. First of all, we eat three, I repeat three, dinners on Christmas Eve. Because Christmas Eve is where the party is at in the Dominican Republic. We didn't work on the 24th or the 25th. Well, we did - but we only were allowed to pass by members and stuff. But Christmas Eve we woke up at 5 in the morning to hand out some bags of food to ten poorer members in the ward. It was way fun. We did some knock and runs - so when the people opened up the door they didn't see us, they just saw a bag full of food. It was better that way too. lol. Because it turns out that not many people are awake at 5 in the morning and most don't like to be at that. lol.
Last Tuesday my companion and I were walking and we saw these two nuns trying with all their might to lift up this rolling gate that fell of its track. It was kind of funny, but luckily those nuns just happened to have their friendly neighborhood missionaries walking by to help them. lol. So we picked it up and put it back on its track and fixed it for them. I wanted to try to set up a time to go back and teach them but they live in one of those monastery things with a bunch of other nuns. And i didn't want to get eaten by some nuns. (ha you gotta love nuns.)
Yea that was pretty much my week. Christmas Eve we eat a lot and Christmas we called the fam and played ping-pong. And I have come to realize that being a missionary stuck in a house for a day makes pretty much one boring day. I mean I love to play dominoes just as much as the next guy, but truly, it is not something I like to much right now.
Love Ya,
Elder Woestman
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, December 21st 2009
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!
So this week was sweet. Monday we did this family home evening night where we made cookies right but it was horrible. People in this country don't use their ovens - at least not to cook that is. They just use them for storage. So when we had to use the oven we opened it up and there were pans in there filled with rat poop. Disgusting!!! So we took out all of those pans and cleaned them. And then we put the cookies in. Well after like five minutes the whole house started smelling like rat poop. lol. It was a pretty amazing smell. lol. But the good news was that the cookies still tasted good. I was surprised that they still wanted to eat them, because i wasn't feeling like eating any cookies from that oven! lol.
Tuesday was a pretty normal day. We went out with this kid named Jose, and it was good. Normal. But Wednesday was a dang good day. So Wednesday we passed by a lady named Carminia. She is about 38 years old and she lives with her husband and 5 kids. When we went to her house Wednesday she told me how she received an answer to her prayers and wants to be baptized. o-ya. So we passed by again Saturday to talk with her husband. We talked to them about the plan of salvation and the importance of eternal families and marriage. And it went way good. The whole family went to church Sunday. It was probably the best part of my week. So I truly hope that they continue doing really good and get baptized - the whole family. Then Friday we had our Christmas dinner as a ward. Me and my companion probably made the "best potatoes ever" once again, and it was way good. The young men and young women did this dance thing. The young men did a break dancing thing and the young women did some line dancing thing. They were both way cool - not very coordinated - lol - but way cool. And that was about my week. Super excited to talk to the family on the 25th.
Happy Holidays,
Elder Woestman
So this week was sweet. Monday we did this family home evening night where we made cookies right but it was horrible. People in this country don't use their ovens - at least not to cook that is. They just use them for storage. So when we had to use the oven we opened it up and there were pans in there filled with rat poop. Disgusting!!! So we took out all of those pans and cleaned them. And then we put the cookies in. Well after like five minutes the whole house started smelling like rat poop. lol. It was a pretty amazing smell. lol. But the good news was that the cookies still tasted good. I was surprised that they still wanted to eat them, because i wasn't feeling like eating any cookies from that oven! lol.
Tuesday was a pretty normal day. We went out with this kid named Jose, and it was good. Normal. But Wednesday was a dang good day. So Wednesday we passed by a lady named Carminia. She is about 38 years old and she lives with her husband and 5 kids. When we went to her house Wednesday she told me how she received an answer to her prayers and wants to be baptized. o-ya. So we passed by again Saturday to talk with her husband. We talked to them about the plan of salvation and the importance of eternal families and marriage. And it went way good. The whole family went to church Sunday. It was probably the best part of my week. So I truly hope that they continue doing really good and get baptized - the whole family. Then Friday we had our Christmas dinner as a ward. Me and my companion probably made the "best potatoes ever" once again, and it was way good. The young men and young women did this dance thing. The young men did a break dancing thing and the young women did some line dancing thing. They were both way cool - not very coordinated - lol - but way cool. And that was about my week. Super excited to talk to the family on the 25th.
Happy Holidays,
Elder Woestman
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, December 14th, 2009
So the week was crazy. Monday we made some cookies which weren't too bad. All the Dominicans said I put too much sugar in them, but to me that just made them more awesome. Then Tuesday we all got to go to the temple, which is always awesome. But this time was exceptionally sweet because my whole mission family was there at the temple. I haven't talked to the first Elder I trained for like ever. When I saw him sitting there I could tell he was having a rough time. So I talked to him a lot. And, as well my trainer in the mission was there. He is still the tall goof that I knew and love. But that wasn't all, because after the temple we got to go to the president's house and eat a Christmas dinner over there. The food was The Bomb!!! I almost got sick because I eat too much and I wanted to eat more. lol. The bad news was that we didn't get back to our area till 4 and we had people to teach starting at 2. But, we were able to teach or at least talk to everyone. We just had to run.
Wednesday we had district meeting but besides that nothing really happened or at least I don't think so. I have a feeling that tons of things happened this week, I just can't remember. Oh well. Thursday lol. Thursday did not work at all the way we planned. lol. So there is this member kid that is like 17 that never wants to got out and teach with us. So in order to get him to go with us we told him that we were going to teach a whole bunch of good looking girls around his age and we needed his help. lol. So Wednesday we set up a bunch of lessons with girls. And then we went to this kids house and he was totally ready and was looking way nice. I was kind of surprised but not really at the same time, because he is that type of kid. Then we went out to teach, but it was funny because none of the girls that we had set up were home, so we weren't able to teach a single one. lol. Which was bad but funny. But he still said he was going to go with us again this week. Friday nothing really happened and Saturday we taught this sweet Jamaican guy. He was way cool. Sunday we had five investigators at church. The week was a little rough but all in all pretty good.
Love you,
Elder Woestman
Wednesday we had district meeting but besides that nothing really happened or at least I don't think so. I have a feeling that tons of things happened this week, I just can't remember. Oh well. Thursday lol. Thursday did not work at all the way we planned. lol. So there is this member kid that is like 17 that never wants to got out and teach with us. So in order to get him to go with us we told him that we were going to teach a whole bunch of good looking girls around his age and we needed his help. lol. So Wednesday we set up a bunch of lessons with girls. And then we went to this kids house and he was totally ready and was looking way nice. I was kind of surprised but not really at the same time, because he is that type of kid. Then we went out to teach, but it was funny because none of the girls that we had set up were home, so we weren't able to teach a single one. lol. Which was bad but funny. But he still said he was going to go with us again this week. Friday nothing really happened and Saturday we taught this sweet Jamaican guy. He was way cool. Sunday we had five investigators at church. The week was a little rough but all in all pretty good.
Love you,
Elder Woestman
Monday, December 7, 2009
Monday, December 7th 2009
Hi Everyone:
So this week was way dang sweet. Monday night we had a family home evening night with a member, and it was awesome. She had everybody there that she could get that was a member of her family and she had some neighbors too. We did a sweet lesson but it was her testimony at the end that really made the night sweet. So we are now teaching her friend, her sister, and her nephew. Awesome. And then Tuesday we went out with Willie, one of my baptisms but nothing really interesting happened. Wednesday nothing really happened as well. But - Thursday the craziest thing happened. So we were teaching at these apartments at the edge of our area and this lady called us up. I had no clue who she was. She said that she was from Salt Lake City and needed our help. So we left and headed to the other side of our area to find her. It turns out that she is some lady that is having some problems with her husband and she wanted us to help. Her husband was beating her and stuff. So we took her to the bishop's house and he talked to her. She ended up sleeping at his house one night and i don't know what happened to her but I'm pretty sure she is ok. And then Saturday we had a baptism and Sunday was church.
Today we went out and did this service project at the "dedication grounds". We cleaned up the whole area were the Dominican Republic was dedicated for the gospel. And . . . that was my week.
Elder Woestman
So this week was way dang sweet. Monday night we had a family home evening night with a member, and it was awesome. She had everybody there that she could get that was a member of her family and she had some neighbors too. We did a sweet lesson but it was her testimony at the end that really made the night sweet. So we are now teaching her friend, her sister, and her nephew. Awesome. And then Tuesday we went out with Willie, one of my baptisms but nothing really interesting happened. Wednesday nothing really happened as well. But - Thursday the craziest thing happened. So we were teaching at these apartments at the edge of our area and this lady called us up. I had no clue who she was. She said that she was from Salt Lake City and needed our help. So we left and headed to the other side of our area to find her. It turns out that she is some lady that is having some problems with her husband and she wanted us to help. Her husband was beating her and stuff. So we took her to the bishop's house and he talked to her. She ended up sleeping at his house one night and i don't know what happened to her but I'm pretty sure she is ok. And then Saturday we had a baptism and Sunday was church.
Today we went out and did this service project at the "dedication grounds". We cleaned up the whole area were the Dominican Republic was dedicated for the gospel. And . . . that was my week.
Elder Woestman
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday November 30th 2009
Hi Everyone;
I am just going to talk randomly about this week because I'm not thinking much happened this week but maybe I will remember things as I start writing. So, this Saturday we had another baptism. And it was awesome. Everybody and anybody went to the baptism. We had almost every women in the whole church go to the baptism. Boo-ya!! And the girl that got baptized is named Violeta. We are teaching her whole family but the thing is that her parents can't get baptized yet because they aren't married. But we are working on it. It is way hard to get paper work in this country. Nothing is organized.
Thanksgiving almost passed by without me even knowing. It wasn't till 8:00 at night that our mission leader, who is American, told us that it was Thanksgiving. My companion and I just looked at each other and were like; "Shoot! We missed Thanksgiving." So we went out and bought ourselves Domino's pizza - two huge family size ones, and eat them. It was sweet. Not really like Thanksgiving but still sweet.
Today for p-day we had a Thanksgiving dinner as a zone. And I must say that my mashed potato making skills are improving. lol. I pretty much make the sweetest mashed potatoes ever now. Friday we had zone conference with the President, and that wasn't bad at all. That was the week basically - nothing really to interesting. Hopefully everything will go a little smoother this week, because it was little hectic this last week.
Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!
Elder Woestman
I am just going to talk randomly about this week because I'm not thinking much happened this week but maybe I will remember things as I start writing. So, this Saturday we had another baptism. And it was awesome. Everybody and anybody went to the baptism. We had almost every women in the whole church go to the baptism. Boo-ya!! And the girl that got baptized is named Violeta. We are teaching her whole family but the thing is that her parents can't get baptized yet because they aren't married. But we are working on it. It is way hard to get paper work in this country. Nothing is organized.
Thanksgiving almost passed by without me even knowing. It wasn't till 8:00 at night that our mission leader, who is American, told us that it was Thanksgiving. My companion and I just looked at each other and were like; "Shoot! We missed Thanksgiving." So we went out and bought ourselves Domino's pizza - two huge family size ones, and eat them. It was sweet. Not really like Thanksgiving but still sweet.
Today for p-day we had a Thanksgiving dinner as a zone. And I must say that my mashed potato making skills are improving. lol. I pretty much make the sweetest mashed potatoes ever now. Friday we had zone conference with the President, and that wasn't bad at all. That was the week basically - nothing really to interesting. Hopefully everything will go a little smoother this week, because it was little hectic this last week.
Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!
Elder Woestman
Monday, November 23, 2009
Monday, November 23rd 2009
So Mom – the package you sent down with a friend got stolen?!?!?! What bad luck do I have? lol. Oh well, I guess it is the thought that counts, but it probably would of been better if you told me that there was nothing but sox inside of it because then I wouldn't of felt bad about it.
So my week was pretty interesting I guess. It all started Tuesday when I went to go teach this member’s two friends. We will call them Friend #1 and Friend #2.. But only Friend #1 showed up and he showed up with a whacked up story. So it turns out that last Saturday Friend #2, was at the church playing basketball with Elmerts, the member kid, and Elmerts’ sister. Friend #2 and Elmerts’ sister got a little too friendly at church, but the crazy thing is that this girl is the girlfriend of Friend #1. So obviously there is a big problem. Now Friend #1 wants nothing with the church and Friend #2 doesn't want to show his face at church again because of what he did. All cause of some stupid girl. . . and they were both dang good investigators as well. We will see if I can turn them around with some time.
Then Thursday we had our interviews with the president, they were nice and fast, because that’s how they are if there are no problems. And he also gave us permission to go to Semma – which is a taylor store, or a place to buy fabric. So my companion and I are going down there to buy some pant taylor and get some pants made. I’m dang excited for that, and then Friday I did my first baptism interview. I was sooo nervous. I was afraid that I might let somebody get baptized that wasn't really ready and I spent and hour and a half doing the interview, and I didn’t even know it. lol.
Saturday the other two missionaries had a big disagreement and one called the APs and so they came over and they had a big talk. My companion and I grabbed some orange soda, sat at the top of the stairs, and listened to the whole thing and it was pretty intense. The one missionary even started crying, probably better than any movie you could ever watch. But it left us counting our blessing on how good we are getting along and everything. lol. And yea, that was my week. Another nice week of crazy mission drama.
Elder Woestman
So my week was pretty interesting I guess. It all started Tuesday when I went to go teach this member’s two friends. We will call them Friend #1 and Friend #2.. But only Friend #1 showed up and he showed up with a whacked up story. So it turns out that last Saturday Friend #2, was at the church playing basketball with Elmerts, the member kid, and Elmerts’ sister. Friend #2 and Elmerts’ sister got a little too friendly at church, but the crazy thing is that this girl is the girlfriend of Friend #1. So obviously there is a big problem. Now Friend #1 wants nothing with the church and Friend #2 doesn't want to show his face at church again because of what he did. All cause of some stupid girl. . . and they were both dang good investigators as well. We will see if I can turn them around with some time.
Then Thursday we had our interviews with the president, they were nice and fast, because that’s how they are if there are no problems. And he also gave us permission to go to Semma – which is a taylor store, or a place to buy fabric. So my companion and I are going down there to buy some pant taylor and get some pants made. I’m dang excited for that, and then Friday I did my first baptism interview. I was sooo nervous. I was afraid that I might let somebody get baptized that wasn't really ready and I spent and hour and a half doing the interview, and I didn’t even know it. lol.
Saturday the other two missionaries had a big disagreement and one called the APs and so they came over and they had a big talk. My companion and I grabbed some orange soda, sat at the top of the stairs, and listened to the whole thing and it was pretty intense. The one missionary even started crying, probably better than any movie you could ever watch. But it left us counting our blessing on how good we are getting along and everything. lol. And yea, that was my week. Another nice week of crazy mission drama.
Elder Woestman
Monday, November 16, 2009
Monday, November 16th 2009
So this week was pretty sweet. I’ll start it off with Wednesday. So Wednesday we went to the super market to get our food for the week, right. Well, we found these what looked like hamburger patties and they were dang cheaper than regular ground beef. Soak Score. So we bought them in place of ground beef. Well, when we went home that day to make lunch we immediately went to the patties to eat some hamburgers for lunch. I started frying them up but the thing was that after like five minutes you’d expect them to start cooking, right? Well they were still blood red. And 20 minutes later they were still blood red, just cooked blood red. So the plan was to just give it to the dogs out side. Well my companion decided that he wasn’t afraid of it and was going to eat it - which was stupid. Thursday I got a phone call from him at the hospital office and I had to go talk to the doctor and sign him out. They think he may have parasites. But I guess that just makes me lucky for not eating it.
This week was the best week number wise for us, but the worst week success wise. We had 12 people committed to go to church Sunday, but only 5 went to church. We even stopped by 6 houses, but not even one of the people we passed by would answer their door and were therefore probably sleeping. But hey, that’s about it, and I have to go. Have a great week.
Elder Woestman
This week was the best week number wise for us, but the worst week success wise. We had 12 people committed to go to church Sunday, but only 5 went to church. We even stopped by 6 houses, but not even one of the people we passed by would answer their door and were therefore probably sleeping. But hey, that’s about it, and I have to go. Have a great week.
Elder Woestman
Monday, November 9, 2009
Monday, Nov 9th 2009
So my week was just awesome. We had a lot of success this week. It started out with a sweet family home evening night that we did Monday. We made enchiladas with one of my baptisms. And then Tuesday we went out with another one of my baptism Willy, for the first time - and that was awesome. He was way good. We taught one of his cousins. Later that night we did another family home evening night and after words Willy did a bunch of magic for the people we were teaching. They all loved it. And, Willy loved the day so much - it was a blast. He is way excited to leave with us again tomorrow. And I am too because that day was the most successful day we had all last week
The rest of the week was pretty normal. We actually have a bunch of new people that we are teaching. We got four referrals this week, three Sunday and one Thursday. That’s way awesome because referrals are the best way to go by far. One of them is a boyfriend of a member and they are thinking about getting married. Two of them are friends of one of my baptisms. And another is this sister-in-law of this member guy that moved into the ward from Brooklyn. And he knows English, which is always sweet. Oh and Saturday we ran into these two guys in the super market who were from Jersey and they spoke perfect English. It was crazy. I kept on getting confused because I wanted to speak to them in Spanish but they were talking to me in perfect English. I ended up speaking probably the worst English ever in front of them. Oh and I totally forgot. I also got interviewed by this one girl who needed to interview a native English speaker. So that was fun. I did that Wednesday. But all in all the week was way sweet.
-Elder Woestman
The rest of the week was pretty normal. We actually have a bunch of new people that we are teaching. We got four referrals this week, three Sunday and one Thursday. That’s way awesome because referrals are the best way to go by far. One of them is a boyfriend of a member and they are thinking about getting married. Two of them are friends of one of my baptisms. And another is this sister-in-law of this member guy that moved into the ward from Brooklyn. And he knows English, which is always sweet. Oh and Saturday we ran into these two guys in the super market who were from Jersey and they spoke perfect English. It was crazy. I kept on getting confused because I wanted to speak to them in Spanish but they were talking to me in perfect English. I ended up speaking probably the worst English ever in front of them. Oh and I totally forgot. I also got interviewed by this one girl who needed to interview a native English speaker. So that was fun. I did that Wednesday. But all in all the week was way sweet.
-Elder Woestman
Monday, November 2, 2009
Monday, Nov 2nd 2009
So Halloween was just crazy for me, because I almost got moved out of my area. So basically I almost got specifically transferred out of my area because of this girl in my ward that my last companion and I reactivated. Basically, she gave me a note and told me not to read till I got home. Which I did just because I thought it was something like she had a problem or wanted me to give something to someone. But it turns out it was a love note. And basically on the back of it, it had two hearts, one of which was broken. On the bottom it said ' Te quiero mi Dulce Bebe ' . So you can start laughing at me now if you want. Everybody else in the house did, because for one, that's not even spelled correctly. Dominicans don't know how to spell. And two, that means “do you want me candy baby”. So I had to call up the AP's and tell them about it and the only reason why I am not being specifically transferred is because they trust me. I told them I could handle it. And, they don't want to separate me and my kid or start the area over with two new companions. So I got pretty lucky there. But yea that was my Halloween. Pretty much ridiculous.
The rest of the week wasn’t too bad. We have been working with this family to get the parents married, and we finally got a date with them for the 14 of this month to get married. That is dang sweet.
And also we found this in-active guy named Juan who we got to go to church Sunday. We have almost all new people that we are teaching these days. We had our capital conference with the President Thursday. He gave a long speech about holding on too long to people that just aren’t going to progress. He said even if we convince them to get baptized that doesn’t mean they will stay active. Oh – and Wednesday one of my baptisms went to the Temple, which was awesome because now he has twice as much energy as before and he wants to start doing family history work. (But I think that’s only because the person that does that in our ward is this girl that he likes. lol.) But yea that was my week. Work, work, work with a little bit of craziness.
Elder Woestman
The rest of the week wasn’t too bad. We have been working with this family to get the parents married, and we finally got a date with them for the 14 of this month to get married. That is dang sweet.
And also we found this in-active guy named Juan who we got to go to church Sunday. We have almost all new people that we are teaching these days. We had our capital conference with the President Thursday. He gave a long speech about holding on too long to people that just aren’t going to progress. He said even if we convince them to get baptized that doesn’t mean they will stay active. Oh – and Wednesday one of my baptisms went to the Temple, which was awesome because now he has twice as much energy as before and he wants to start doing family history work. (But I think that’s only because the person that does that in our ward is this girl that he likes. lol.) But yea that was my week. Work, work, work with a little bit of craziness.
Elder Woestman
Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday, October 26th
Hello Everyone:
This week was a little interesting; Tuesday was pretty much a normal day. But Wednesday is where it all stated, so Wednesday one of our investigator's girl friend moved out of his house. Finally! She took his computer though. But that just shows his determination to get baptized, he kicked out his girl and lost his computer. He is the man.
Thursday was kind of a crazy day. So in the middle of the day one of the guys who I baptized and who was helping us with an investigator, told us that this investigator we were going to see got sent to prison for trying to rob two girls at some college. So it turns out that he was not going to be able to get baptized like we wanted Saturday because he has to spend three months in jail. I would never have guessed that he was capable of doing such a thing. He just seemed to smart. On Friday we had the interviews of the other two people that got baptized. And then Saturday we had our baptisms. That was awesome. My companion got to baptize his first person - and he only had to do it twice unlike my 4 times that I had to do for my first baptism. lol.
Sunday I had to make up a lesson for the investigator class because our mission leader was sick and didn't tell anybody. But it was all good. We talked about the war in heaven and how God chose Jesus Christ as our Savior. All in all it was good, and then we went out and worked. It was a pretty sweet week, but the crazy thing was that we had a special transfer in our house last night. One of the Elders left so we have a threesome today - the Elder should be receiving his new companion in like twenty minutes. But yea that was my week.
Elder Woestman
This week was a little interesting; Tuesday was pretty much a normal day. But Wednesday is where it all stated, so Wednesday one of our investigator's girl friend moved out of his house. Finally! She took his computer though. But that just shows his determination to get baptized, he kicked out his girl and lost his computer. He is the man.
Thursday was kind of a crazy day. So in the middle of the day one of the guys who I baptized and who was helping us with an investigator, told us that this investigator we were going to see got sent to prison for trying to rob two girls at some college. So it turns out that he was not going to be able to get baptized like we wanted Saturday because he has to spend three months in jail. I would never have guessed that he was capable of doing such a thing. He just seemed to smart. On Friday we had the interviews of the other two people that got baptized. And then Saturday we had our baptisms. That was awesome. My companion got to baptize his first person - and he only had to do it twice unlike my 4 times that I had to do for my first baptism. lol.
Sunday I had to make up a lesson for the investigator class because our mission leader was sick and didn't tell anybody. But it was all good. We talked about the war in heaven and how God chose Jesus Christ as our Savior. All in all it was good, and then we went out and worked. It was a pretty sweet week, but the crazy thing was that we had a special transfer in our house last night. One of the Elders left so we have a threesome today - the Elder should be receiving his new companion in like twenty minutes. But yea that was my week.
Elder Woestman
Monday, October 19, 2009
Monday, October 19th 2009
Hay mom, I know you are getting cold up there, but it’s extremely hot here. I don’t know if you would like having to wake up in the middle of the night because the power went out and its soo hot that you are sweating so you have to stick your head in a bucket of water to cool it off (there is no other way to get back to sleep). lol. But I'm not complaining. God actually blessed me with a good attitude with this ghetto way of living. I actually love it. lol.
So this week was Awesome! It all started with Tuesday. So Tuesday I got my kid (my new companion to train). He is the man! We got to the transfer chapel and the President gave me an envelope with his name and picture. The picture was black and white. So when they come I was looking for him, but didn’t really recognize him because he had red hair. lol. But he is way cool. He is 6ft 3in. He is a pilot. His dad is a crop duster. He is kind of just a big goof, but he is my big goof and I love him. He knows a surprisingly good amount of Spanish. He still has a lot to learn but he has a good word selection. So when we got home we unpacked him and I showed him the area book. Then we headed straight to work because that’s how I like to role. During our first few lessons he didn’t talk much. So I started thinking that I was not all that great at this training thing - that I was going at it all wrong. So then we did some contacts. I taught him how to contact and he became a little more confident. Then we started hitting up my key investigators (my key investigators are sweet). So while I was teaching I had them talk real slow and I talked slow and then I had him start every topic. I told him the topic in English and basically what he should say and he went at it. And then I cleaned it up after wards. So the lessons were a little longer than usual but they were helping him a lot I think. Then we went out and visited the bishop and some other members. All in all, I thought the first day was really good.
On Wednesday we basically did the same thing. I made him steak and potatoes for lunch though. I know sweet, right. lol. But the most important thing was that my companion made his first baptismal date that night. o-ya. And then Thursday we went out with this member named Ivan who knows English. So that was really nice because he was able to help my companion out a bunch just by talking with him. Then Saturday was a good day - until that night. I talked to this girl named Elizabeth who has been cutting her wrists. I had to explain to her how stupid that is, that there is still hope in life, and that there is no need to kill herself. But after that she pretty much told me about all of her problems and we had a good talk. Hopefully she will get better soon. I’m thinking she will.
Sunday we had 5 investigators at church and the primary did one of those sacrament meeting things that they do sometimes. lol. I forget what that would be called - and then today we played basketball. All in all it wasn’t too bad of a week.
Love You,
Elder Woestman
So this week was Awesome! It all started with Tuesday. So Tuesday I got my kid (my new companion to train). He is the man! We got to the transfer chapel and the President gave me an envelope with his name and picture. The picture was black and white. So when they come I was looking for him, but didn’t really recognize him because he had red hair. lol. But he is way cool. He is 6ft 3in. He is a pilot. His dad is a crop duster. He is kind of just a big goof, but he is my big goof and I love him. He knows a surprisingly good amount of Spanish. He still has a lot to learn but he has a good word selection. So when we got home we unpacked him and I showed him the area book. Then we headed straight to work because that’s how I like to role. During our first few lessons he didn’t talk much. So I started thinking that I was not all that great at this training thing - that I was going at it all wrong. So then we did some contacts. I taught him how to contact and he became a little more confident. Then we started hitting up my key investigators (my key investigators are sweet). So while I was teaching I had them talk real slow and I talked slow and then I had him start every topic. I told him the topic in English and basically what he should say and he went at it. And then I cleaned it up after wards. So the lessons were a little longer than usual but they were helping him a lot I think. Then we went out and visited the bishop and some other members. All in all, I thought the first day was really good.
On Wednesday we basically did the same thing. I made him steak and potatoes for lunch though. I know sweet, right. lol. But the most important thing was that my companion made his first baptismal date that night. o-ya. And then Thursday we went out with this member named Ivan who knows English. So that was really nice because he was able to help my companion out a bunch just by talking with him. Then Saturday was a good day - until that night. I talked to this girl named Elizabeth who has been cutting her wrists. I had to explain to her how stupid that is, that there is still hope in life, and that there is no need to kill herself. But after that she pretty much told me about all of her problems and we had a good talk. Hopefully she will get better soon. I’m thinking she will.
Sunday we had 5 investigators at church and the primary did one of those sacrament meeting things that they do sometimes. lol. I forget what that would be called - and then today we played basketball. All in all it wasn’t too bad of a week.
Love You,
Elder Woestman
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 13th 2009
Where to start? It was such a crazy week. lol. No, not really. It was actually a boring week because everyone got sick in my house except me. I am going to start with Wednesday. So Wednesday we were contacting these apartments when it started pouring down raining like a freaking water fall. And these apartments are like motels because the doors are open to the outside. So we were hiding under these stairs when we got this phone call from the other missionaries that we are living with and it turns out they are home sick. But need us to try to do an intercombio so they can visit some people. So we were just hiding underneath these stairs looking at the rain and after looking at each other we said screw it. Because every missionary knows that your future wife gets hotter every time you get soaked in the rain while you work right. lol. So we started walking and literally after three steps in the rain I was soaked. lol. Luckily we had our stuff in plastic bags inside our backpacks. So we got to walk in the rain for a mile back to our house. Then we changed and waited for the rain to stop. My companion stayed behind while a different elder and I finished the day. So getting stuck in the rain just made my day, because I love getting wet. It feels soooo good.
Then Thursday I went out for a half day with my companion because he got sick too. So everyone was sick. Saturday I went out with Elder Small because his companion and mine were sick. We got to do this family home evening which was sweet. We made them cookies and everything. It was with this less active member named Migalina who isn’t really less active anymore now that we got to her. The last time we talked to her she showed us this study journal that she made and is writing in and called us her angels. lol. But we taught her and her four kids and like 8 other neighborhood kids. That was probably the best family home evening I have had yet, just because of all those kids. They were all trying to answer the questions and sound sophisticated just so they could get a cookie. lol. It was awesome. And then Saturday we had this meeting where we were told that we were going to have a concert in the church Sunday and we had to invite all of the people. So we dropped all our plans for the day and handed out invitations to everyone and anyone. I went by every single person that I have taught since I have been here in Cristo Rey. And it took forever. I think my legs almost fell off. lol. But it was nice because there were clouds covering up the sun the whole day, so it wasn’t even hot. Then Sunday we had church and the activity. At the concert I had this 14 year old girl hitting on me. So I actually had to change seats after awhile just to get away from her. It was messed up.
Today we played ball at the church and I tried learning how to do a back flip. Elder Potter knows how and was spotting me. I can sort of do it, but it still needs a lot of work. And now to the best announcement of the whole week: I got my phone call and I will be training again. This new missionary is an American, and when I got the phone call Pres Almonte didn’t know how to say his name. We will see. I’ll get him tomorrow bright and early at 7:00. And I will be staying right here in Cristo Rey.
Love You,
Elder Woestman
Then Thursday I went out for a half day with my companion because he got sick too. So everyone was sick. Saturday I went out with Elder Small because his companion and mine were sick. We got to do this family home evening which was sweet. We made them cookies and everything. It was with this less active member named Migalina who isn’t really less active anymore now that we got to her. The last time we talked to her she showed us this study journal that she made and is writing in and called us her angels. lol. But we taught her and her four kids and like 8 other neighborhood kids. That was probably the best family home evening I have had yet, just because of all those kids. They were all trying to answer the questions and sound sophisticated just so they could get a cookie. lol. It was awesome. And then Saturday we had this meeting where we were told that we were going to have a concert in the church Sunday and we had to invite all of the people. So we dropped all our plans for the day and handed out invitations to everyone and anyone. I went by every single person that I have taught since I have been here in Cristo Rey. And it took forever. I think my legs almost fell off. lol. But it was nice because there were clouds covering up the sun the whole day, so it wasn’t even hot. Then Sunday we had church and the activity. At the concert I had this 14 year old girl hitting on me. So I actually had to change seats after awhile just to get away from her. It was messed up.
Today we played ball at the church and I tried learning how to do a back flip. Elder Potter knows how and was spotting me. I can sort of do it, but it still needs a lot of work. And now to the best announcement of the whole week: I got my phone call and I will be training again. This new missionary is an American, and when I got the phone call Pres Almonte didn’t know how to say his name. We will see. I’ll get him tomorrow bright and early at 7:00. And I will be staying right here in Cristo Rey.
Love You,
Elder Woestman
Monday, October 5, 2009
Monday, October 5th 2009
So mom , tell dad that I am not a district leader any more. I haven’t been since I left Nizao, and I’m not a trainer again yet either. I don’t even know for sure if I am going to be a trainer again. Transfers are next week and I will find out then. The president just told me that I was going to be a trainer again in the interviews that we have in the middle of every transfer. But, I will find out next Monday. But, now to my week.
So Monday night we taught a family home evening at a member’s house and discussed the importance of conference with them. It was sweet. We gave everyone a scripture and had them stand up and act like the prophet and explain the scripture to everyone else. And then we taught this lady named Morena. She is way cool. We have been teaching her all week. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she read 3 Nephi 11 but the thing is that she is having problems receiving an answer to her prayers. So we told her to continue reading and praying. And it all comes in due time. But she is progressing real well. She couldn’t go to conference though.
Tuesday we passed by an old investigator who has a brother who is a member to see how he is doing and he told us he wants to get baptized- which is awesome. So we sat a date and told him if he goes to church the next two Sundays we can baptize him. O-yea.
Then Wednesday we had a little intercombio because a member kid got kicked out of school cause his hair was too long. So one of the Elders switched companions with me and he cut his hair because he knows how.
On Thursday we started teaching Yandy who is a friend of Awilda, one of my baptisms. He is way awesome. He went to every single session of conference besides the priesthood session. He as well will be getting baptized in two weeks.
Friday, we set up another baptismal date with Elmerts who is the brother of another member. He is way sweet. And we also got a reference from a less active member to teach her husband. So we will see how that goes. And then there was conference which rocked. We weren’t able to watch the first two Saturday sessions because we weren’t allowed. We had to work, but we were able to watch priesthood and the Sunday sessions. And I just love conference. I would have to say that my favorite one was the one of Elder D. Todd Christoferson (if that is how you spell it). lol. But yea that was my week.
Have a great week too.
Elder Woestman
So Monday night we taught a family home evening at a member’s house and discussed the importance of conference with them. It was sweet. We gave everyone a scripture and had them stand up and act like the prophet and explain the scripture to everyone else. And then we taught this lady named Morena. She is way cool. We have been teaching her all week. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she read 3 Nephi 11 but the thing is that she is having problems receiving an answer to her prayers. So we told her to continue reading and praying. And it all comes in due time. But she is progressing real well. She couldn’t go to conference though.
Tuesday we passed by an old investigator who has a brother who is a member to see how he is doing and he told us he wants to get baptized- which is awesome. So we sat a date and told him if he goes to church the next two Sundays we can baptize him. O-yea.
Then Wednesday we had a little intercombio because a member kid got kicked out of school cause his hair was too long. So one of the Elders switched companions with me and he cut his hair because he knows how.
On Thursday we started teaching Yandy who is a friend of Awilda, one of my baptisms. He is way awesome. He went to every single session of conference besides the priesthood session. He as well will be getting baptized in two weeks.
Friday, we set up another baptismal date with Elmerts who is the brother of another member. He is way sweet. And we also got a reference from a less active member to teach her husband. So we will see how that goes. And then there was conference which rocked. We weren’t able to watch the first two Saturday sessions because we weren’t allowed. We had to work, but we were able to watch priesthood and the Sunday sessions. And I just love conference. I would have to say that my favorite one was the one of Elder D. Todd Christoferson (if that is how you spell it). lol. But yea that was my week.
Have a great week too.
Elder Woestman
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 28th 2009
Dang, another baby, Robert and Doranda - That’s just awesome!
So this week wasn’t really all that interesting, but then again it kind of was. So I’ll first talk about my girl attack of the week. So Tuesday while we were walking to Rosemart´s house we ran into Stephanie who is the sister of an old investigator. She walked up to me and straight up put her arms around my neck and tried to kiss me. Out of no where! I had to ripe her hands off me and then I threw this little member kid at her who was with us and just booked it through this crowd of people to Mama Rosa´s house. It was kind of ridiculous. But besides that Tuesday was good. I just know now never to go near that girl again.
Wednesday I made everybody waffles for breakfast. I’m pretty much a waffle master and that waffle maker was probably the best thing you have ever bought me mom. No lie. We had district meeting. I gave a talk on obedience and we talked about patience and stuff. And I also had an intercombio with Elder Small, which went way good. We had some fun.
Thursday was just a normal day. Friday we did the papers for Awilda and her daughter to get baptized. And Saturday we had 2 baptisms. O-Ya. lol. It was awesome. We had to do it at another chapel though, because there was this Relief Society Conference and she wanted to go to it so we just did her baptism over there so she could go to that too. That was dang good.
Then Sunday we had 12 people go to church and one inactive member. Which was soooo sweet. And then today we went to the botanical gardens for our P-Day activity. It was gorgeous. We got to ride the train and everything, it was way good fun. And yea, that was my week.
- Elder Woestman
So this week wasn’t really all that interesting, but then again it kind of was. So I’ll first talk about my girl attack of the week. So Tuesday while we were walking to Rosemart´s house we ran into Stephanie who is the sister of an old investigator. She walked up to me and straight up put her arms around my neck and tried to kiss me. Out of no where! I had to ripe her hands off me and then I threw this little member kid at her who was with us and just booked it through this crowd of people to Mama Rosa´s house. It was kind of ridiculous. But besides that Tuesday was good. I just know now never to go near that girl again.
Wednesday I made everybody waffles for breakfast. I’m pretty much a waffle master and that waffle maker was probably the best thing you have ever bought me mom. No lie. We had district meeting. I gave a talk on obedience and we talked about patience and stuff. And I also had an intercombio with Elder Small, which went way good. We had some fun.
Thursday was just a normal day. Friday we did the papers for Awilda and her daughter to get baptized. And Saturday we had 2 baptisms. O-Ya. lol. It was awesome. We had to do it at another chapel though, because there was this Relief Society Conference and she wanted to go to it so we just did her baptism over there so she could go to that too. That was dang good.
Then Sunday we had 12 people go to church and one inactive member. Which was soooo sweet. And then today we went to the botanical gardens for our P-Day activity. It was gorgeous. We got to ride the train and everything, it was way good fun. And yea, that was my week.
- Elder Woestman
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 21st 2009
Hi Everyone:
My week was sweet. Wednesday we had this sweet-as-heck family home evening night with a part member family. It was awesome. We watched the restoration video and we made them cookies. The cookies were amazing. We made them home made Oreo cookies, and then we played this water game. You get a cup full of water and a spoon, then think of a fruit, and walk around asking people to tell you a fruit, and if they say your fruit you throw water at them. It was awesome. It got so out of hand. It turned into a full on-water fight. The grandma was even in on it. lol. When we left the kids were running around out side throwing buckets of water at each other. lol. But yea that was sweet. And then Thursday we had interviews with the Pres. and they were good. He talked to me about how I am going to be a father again [a trainer of a new missionary]. Yea, I’m sooo excited. It’s not official because things can always change but he said I am going to train again after the next transfer. So I’m way excited for that.
And then we had an intercombio that same day. It was a good intercombio. I went out with Elder Potter on his side of town and we busted out a good amount of lessons. I had to go to the bathroom though in the middle of walking around so we ran to a member’s house, right. Well I go to the bathroom but they don’t have toilet paper. So I call out to them and they brought back to me a bucket of water. Can you believe that? A bucket of water. So I had to wipe my butt with my hand and a bucket of water. And I thought this country couldn’t get anymore ghetto. lol. So yea, that was an experience.
Friday and Saturday were pretty normal days. We just worked, worked, worked. Sunday we had 7 people at church, which was good. And then today we played basketball and had a milk shake and enchilada party. It was just awesome. And yea, that was my week.
Take Care, Elder Woestman
My week was sweet. Wednesday we had this sweet-as-heck family home evening night with a part member family. It was awesome. We watched the restoration video and we made them cookies. The cookies were amazing. We made them home made Oreo cookies, and then we played this water game. You get a cup full of water and a spoon, then think of a fruit, and walk around asking people to tell you a fruit, and if they say your fruit you throw water at them. It was awesome. It got so out of hand. It turned into a full on-water fight. The grandma was even in on it. lol. When we left the kids were running around out side throwing buckets of water at each other. lol. But yea that was sweet. And then Thursday we had interviews with the Pres. and they were good. He talked to me about how I am going to be a father again [a trainer of a new missionary]. Yea, I’m sooo excited. It’s not official because things can always change but he said I am going to train again after the next transfer. So I’m way excited for that.
And then we had an intercombio that same day. It was a good intercombio. I went out with Elder Potter on his side of town and we busted out a good amount of lessons. I had to go to the bathroom though in the middle of walking around so we ran to a member’s house, right. Well I go to the bathroom but they don’t have toilet paper. So I call out to them and they brought back to me a bucket of water. Can you believe that? A bucket of water. So I had to wipe my butt with my hand and a bucket of water. And I thought this country couldn’t get anymore ghetto. lol. So yea, that was an experience.
Friday and Saturday were pretty normal days. We just worked, worked, worked. Sunday we had 7 people at church, which was good. And then today we played basketball and had a milk shake and enchilada party. It was just awesome. And yea, that was my week.
Take Care, Elder Woestman
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Monday, September 14th 2009
So, lets see here what to write about. I will start with all the crazy non missionary stuff that happened this week and I will start with today. So today we went and played soccer. It was sweet. There were only six of us and my team kicked trash but it was still good fun. lol. The teams were a little unfair but that’s how it worked. The new people didn’t know that I played indoor soccer during high school so they weren’t expecting my sweet soccer skills (lol). My companion talked my district leader [DL] onto this ant hill, right, and my DL got eaten by ants. He has like 50 ant bites all over his arm. It is ridiculous. It looks like he had some sort of allergic reaction. I have never seen ants do such things. But he is ok. His arm looks funny though.
Sunday we had a conference and it was way good. We had four TV’s hooked up at the church and one of them was outside and had tons of seats in front of it. There were tons of people. And we had 7 investigators go to church, talk about awesome. Then Friday we had a fire works show go off in front of our house. That was way sweet. And lets see here. I had an intercombio with my DL and it was good. That was Wednesday. Ummmm, what else. I have two people set up to get baptized Saturday. I’m way excited: A mother named Awilda and her 12 yr old daughter. And yea my new companion is sweet. He kind of has an anger problem and complains a lot. lol. But besides that everything is good. lol. Its funny. And he doesn’t like to speak Spanish. so I hope my Spanish doesn’t go down while I’m with him. I’m pretty sure I will be ok with the Spanish though. Spanish isn’t a problem these days. I haven’t had a single person tell me they didn’t understand me this whole week. So that’s way awesome. But yea, that was my week.
Be Good,
Elder Woestman
Sunday we had a conference and it was way good. We had four TV’s hooked up at the church and one of them was outside and had tons of seats in front of it. There were tons of people. And we had 7 investigators go to church, talk about awesome. Then Friday we had a fire works show go off in front of our house. That was way sweet. And lets see here. I had an intercombio with my DL and it was good. That was Wednesday. Ummmm, what else. I have two people set up to get baptized Saturday. I’m way excited: A mother named Awilda and her 12 yr old daughter. And yea my new companion is sweet. He kind of has an anger problem and complains a lot. lol. But besides that everything is good. lol. Its funny. And he doesn’t like to speak Spanish. so I hope my Spanish doesn’t go down while I’m with him. I’m pretty sure I will be ok with the Spanish though. Spanish isn’t a problem these days. I haven’t had a single person tell me they didn’t understand me this whole week. So that’s way awesome. But yea, that was my week.
Be Good,
Elder Woestman
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Monday, September 7th 2009
So this week was really good. I got my new companion Tuesday. His name is Elder Thorup. He is a skinny kid who was a paramedic before the mission. How cool is that right! He has some sweet disgusting stories - kind of like Ben’s stories at the dinner table about his days working for the veterinarian. But these are with real people.
But let’s see. The week has been really hot. I have been showering like 3 times every day just because I have been sweating sooo much. But Thursday we had our zone conference and a guy from the Seventies came to talk to us. It was good, but Pres. Almonte was way better. He made me feel like the worst missionary in the world but yet I still felt like I could be the best if I just gave a little more effort. Those are skills that I need.
Friday we thought we weren’t going to have our baptism because we couldn’t find the mom of our investigator to get her signature - but talk about revelation: The APs called us up and told us to try one more time at like 8 at night. So we go and who do we find . . but the mom. So we had the interview right there and we had the baptism Saturday. It was a little hard to get everything organized with so little time, but we got it all worked out. And then Sunday we had 10 people at church. That was sweet. And we have another baptism set up for Saturday. But, we have conference next week so we will see if that goes through. Those have always been hard weekends to get baptisms going. And - that was my week.
Love,
Elder Woestman
But let’s see. The week has been really hot. I have been showering like 3 times every day just because I have been sweating sooo much. But Thursday we had our zone conference and a guy from the Seventies came to talk to us. It was good, but Pres. Almonte was way better. He made me feel like the worst missionary in the world but yet I still felt like I could be the best if I just gave a little more effort. Those are skills that I need.
Friday we thought we weren’t going to have our baptism because we couldn’t find the mom of our investigator to get her signature - but talk about revelation: The APs called us up and told us to try one more time at like 8 at night. So we go and who do we find . . but the mom. So we had the interview right there and we had the baptism Saturday. It was a little hard to get everything organized with so little time, but we got it all worked out. And then Sunday we had 10 people at church. That was sweet. And we have another baptism set up for Saturday. But, we have conference next week so we will see if that goes through. Those have always been hard weekends to get baptisms going. And - that was my week.
Love,
Elder Woestman
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Hi Everyone:
Well this week, let’s see. I forgot my journal at the house, but I guess I will start out with how awesome we did this week. It was crazy. We taught 36 lessons with a member. Which is amazing. We had members go out with us almost every day. We missed one day with a member, but still, that was just awesome. And lets see here, Tuesday is transfer day which is tomorrow. I will be getting this new companion who is American. So that's going to be weird because he has less time than me and I’m told he doesn't know much Spanish. So I’m going to be the one leading with the Spanish now. That should be an adventure. I’m scared though, I’m pretty good with my Spanish - but I’m way excited because I’m told that he will work hard if I work hard - like he is really tranquil. So that's awesome.
But yea we had 7 investigators at church. One is going to get baptized Saturday. Finally a baptism. It’s been taking to long to get this place moving, but I feel the success coming. Tuesday we started working at these apartment buildings. There are like fifty of them right next to each other. The missionaries haven’t worked there for a long time it seems like. They’re right on the side of our area down in this gully. So we were working down there all week and we were having lots of success. And there are so many apartments that we will probably be working down there for a good amount of time. We have this one new investigator who we asked if she was living with her parents. She said her mom died. So I told her she could be with her mom again and she just looked at me and said “impossible”. I just smiled inside. We taught her part of the Plan of Salvation and she was all into it. So I’m hoping that will go good.
We had three girls go to church all by them selves. We didn't even think they were going to come but they did. So that was sweet. And we have a bunch of other new people too. So this week should be action packed as well. But yea that was my week.
Elder Woestman
Well this week, let’s see. I forgot my journal at the house, but I guess I will start out with how awesome we did this week. It was crazy. We taught 36 lessons with a member. Which is amazing. We had members go out with us almost every day. We missed one day with a member, but still, that was just awesome. And lets see here, Tuesday is transfer day which is tomorrow. I will be getting this new companion who is American. So that's going to be weird because he has less time than me and I’m told he doesn't know much Spanish. So I’m going to be the one leading with the Spanish now. That should be an adventure. I’m scared though, I’m pretty good with my Spanish - but I’m way excited because I’m told that he will work hard if I work hard - like he is really tranquil. So that's awesome.
But yea we had 7 investigators at church. One is going to get baptized Saturday. Finally a baptism. It’s been taking to long to get this place moving, but I feel the success coming. Tuesday we started working at these apartment buildings. There are like fifty of them right next to each other. The missionaries haven’t worked there for a long time it seems like. They’re right on the side of our area down in this gully. So we were working down there all week and we were having lots of success. And there are so many apartments that we will probably be working down there for a good amount of time. We have this one new investigator who we asked if she was living with her parents. She said her mom died. So I told her she could be with her mom again and she just looked at me and said “impossible”. I just smiled inside. We taught her part of the Plan of Salvation and she was all into it. So I’m hoping that will go good.
We had three girls go to church all by them selves. We didn't even think they were going to come but they did. So that was sweet. And we have a bunch of other new people too. So this week should be action packed as well. But yea that was my week.
Elder Woestman
Monday, August 24, 2009
Monday, August 24th 2009
So first of all, I don’t really know what to say about grandpa’s dying. It kind of feels like its not even real because I’m so far away and because I wasn’t even there for any of it. Man, I just feel like I missed a lot and I can’t do anything about it. Grandma and Mom, I love you.
Monday we had our interviews with the president and he basically boched every one. but I guess boche isn’t a word you would understand, so “yelled at everyone” would work because the missionaries are lazy that I’m with. But because of it, the week went a whole lot better. We worked a whole lot harder. Still not at the point I want to be but we are definitely doing better. We had 5 people at church Sunday. One of them is named Willy. He is 24 and he has stopped drinking and is working on kicking his girl out of his house because he doesn’t want to marry her and they don’t have kids. So that’s way exciting. And then there is Mayalin. She is an all-star. She just rips right threw everything we give her and asks for more. She is awesome. Then there is Nana and her kids. She is a humble lady with two kids, but the thing is we have to talk to her husband and we haven’t been able to get to him yet.
Today for p-day we played some baseball. It was good. We did some Dominican against American action and of course we got our butts kicked. We won the first game but the second two they just trashed us. But it was perfect because when we finished playing we got to our house and it started poring down rain. And since we didn’t have electricity and running water because of that, we showered up on the roof (haha). That’s always good fun.
School started down here so there are three kids that usually go out with us now can’t. We are working to get members to go out with us now. We only had like 20 some odd lessons with a member this week. lame.
Let’s see what else . . . . There is this girl who is stalking me. She keeps screaming about how she wants my blue eyes every time I see her in the street. Its kind of annoying, but when you got eyes like this what can you say right lol. Besides all that, we have just been working - the usual you know. It is raining a lot these days though. I walk around with an umbrella these days. And mom I don’t use the one you gave me. I lost that one, I’m sorry, but I don’t think it would have really worked anyways. It rains a lot and can get dang windy at the same time. So I have this big heavy duty one. It’s nice.
But hey – that’s about it.
Elder Woestman
Monday we had our interviews with the president and he basically boched every one. but I guess boche isn’t a word you would understand, so “yelled at everyone” would work because the missionaries are lazy that I’m with. But because of it, the week went a whole lot better. We worked a whole lot harder. Still not at the point I want to be but we are definitely doing better. We had 5 people at church Sunday. One of them is named Willy. He is 24 and he has stopped drinking and is working on kicking his girl out of his house because he doesn’t want to marry her and they don’t have kids. So that’s way exciting. And then there is Mayalin. She is an all-star. She just rips right threw everything we give her and asks for more. She is awesome. Then there is Nana and her kids. She is a humble lady with two kids, but the thing is we have to talk to her husband and we haven’t been able to get to him yet.
Today for p-day we played some baseball. It was good. We did some Dominican against American action and of course we got our butts kicked. We won the first game but the second two they just trashed us. But it was perfect because when we finished playing we got to our house and it started poring down rain. And since we didn’t have electricity and running water because of that, we showered up on the roof (haha). That’s always good fun.
School started down here so there are three kids that usually go out with us now can’t. We are working to get members to go out with us now. We only had like 20 some odd lessons with a member this week. lame.
Let’s see what else . . . . There is this girl who is stalking me. She keeps screaming about how she wants my blue eyes every time I see her in the street. Its kind of annoying, but when you got eyes like this what can you say right lol. Besides all that, we have just been working - the usual you know. It is raining a lot these days though. I walk around with an umbrella these days. And mom I don’t use the one you gave me. I lost that one, I’m sorry, but I don’t think it would have really worked anyways. It rains a lot and can get dang windy at the same time. So I have this big heavy duty one. It’s nice.
But hey – that’s about it.
Elder Woestman
Monday, August 17, 2009
Monday - August 17th 2009
Well Tuesday it rained all day. We went out with a member but we just all got soaked and it didn't seem like it was going to be a very productive day. lol. But we ended up teaching 8 lessons with that member. Which was dang good. I guess rainy days are the best days. We have this way sweet investigator named Juan. He is just way awesome; reading everything and praying. I don’t understand some people. Why don’t they just pray? The way of religion is really easy. We don’t try to trick people. I mean I just teach them and ask them to pray about what they read. God will give you all the answers you need if you just ask him with a little bit of faith. It’s just amazing how many people tell me that God doesn't talk to people any more. It’s just stupid. And then they won’t just ask Him if the church is true. But hey, some people just don’t want to know right.
Thursday it rained even worst than Tuesday. We ran into this lady who said that everyone was going to heaven no matter what they did, everyone was going to the same place. I almost blew up on her, because if that was true why the heck would Jesus tell his apostles to spread the gospel. But I didn’t blow up on her. I just let her talk and then we left. lol. Crazy fun.
Friday I had an intercombio and went out with a different Elder. Now here is an elder that is the definition of lazy. He has 7 months in the mission but doesn’t know any Spanish still. It was really hard to teach with him, because he didn’t even try to teach. He just gave it all to me to do. It was a bad day, but it makes one count his blessings.
Then Saturday we ran into this really cool kid (he isn’t really a kid - he is twenty) but he has a great desire. He says that he knew some missionaries before that were really good to him. So we taught him and he went to church Sunday. And - that was my week.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Thursday it rained even worst than Tuesday. We ran into this lady who said that everyone was going to heaven no matter what they did, everyone was going to the same place. I almost blew up on her, because if that was true why the heck would Jesus tell his apostles to spread the gospel. But I didn’t blow up on her. I just let her talk and then we left. lol. Crazy fun.
Friday I had an intercombio and went out with a different Elder. Now here is an elder that is the definition of lazy. He has 7 months in the mission but doesn’t know any Spanish still. It was really hard to teach with him, because he didn’t even try to teach. He just gave it all to me to do. It was a bad day, but it makes one count his blessings.
Then Saturday we ran into this really cool kid (he isn’t really a kid - he is twenty) but he has a great desire. He says that he knew some missionaries before that were really good to him. So we taught him and he went to church Sunday. And - that was my week.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Monday, August 10, 2009
NOTE FROM LAURA: I called the missionary department in Salt Lake City to find out more about the stopping of pouch mail - there IS STILL POUCH MAIL - going in and coming out. So if you have been writing him - you still can. There was a misunderstanding between Salt Lake and the DR Mission Office.
Hi Everyone:
So this week wasn’t that bad at all. I’m still working my butt off to get my companion going - not only my companion but one of the other missionaries too. We are improving - long way to go but improving. So we will have a baptism Saturday. I haven’t had to work this hard to get a baptism. Before they were just falling in my lap. Now I’m in the capital and people are just way more prideful.
But Tuesday was super sweet. We slept on the roof. You know; a “little companion bonding time“. Plus the power went out so our fans didn’t work and it was really hot inside. We were telling scary stories to each other. I feel asleep scared. I’m a big chicken. So we spent every day this week with a member, and we taught 28 lessons with a member this week. How crazy is that. That’s the highest my companion has ever gotten on his mission. Raising-up the bar.
Wednesday was a super interesting day. We ran into a lady who had a question about the bible. But it turned out that she just wanted to fight with us. But I was patient with her. My companion wanted to argue with her, but I held him back. We just listened to her yell at us for half an hour. You could feel something devilish about her. When she was talking to us her lips were twitching. But hey, what can you do? At the end I bore my testimony and we booked it out of there. lol. But, it makes me wonder what would ever push someone to fight about the words of God. Because I’m definitely thinking not God himself.
But hey, Thursday was a pretty regular day. I’m getting to know the streets a whole lot better and I’m working really hard to teach my companion English. I find he is easier to get along with when I am teaching him English. lol. I am also gaining a huge testimony on service. Before when I would ask people if I could help them, they would say no. Now I just walk right up and clean their dishes or grab their broom or clothes and just do it. I thinks it's better that way. lol. I like it that way. They don’t have to make a decision. I’m just going to serve.
We had three people at church Sunday. We went to see 8 people Sunday morning and all said they would go to church. But only one out of that 8 actually came. lame. One I thought was a really cool family too.
Oh - so I also got proposed to Friday. Forgot about that. She told me she would wait a whole year and two months too. Every time she sees me she tells me "1 yr and 2 months". It’s kind of freaky. And then today we played on a slip-n-slide and played some b-ball for p-day. It was good fun. That was my week.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Hi Everyone:
So this week wasn’t that bad at all. I’m still working my butt off to get my companion going - not only my companion but one of the other missionaries too. We are improving - long way to go but improving. So we will have a baptism Saturday. I haven’t had to work this hard to get a baptism. Before they were just falling in my lap. Now I’m in the capital and people are just way more prideful.
But Tuesday was super sweet. We slept on the roof. You know; a “little companion bonding time“. Plus the power went out so our fans didn’t work and it was really hot inside. We were telling scary stories to each other. I feel asleep scared. I’m a big chicken. So we spent every day this week with a member, and we taught 28 lessons with a member this week. How crazy is that. That’s the highest my companion has ever gotten on his mission. Raising-up the bar.
Wednesday was a super interesting day. We ran into a lady who had a question about the bible. But it turned out that she just wanted to fight with us. But I was patient with her. My companion wanted to argue with her, but I held him back. We just listened to her yell at us for half an hour. You could feel something devilish about her. When she was talking to us her lips were twitching. But hey, what can you do? At the end I bore my testimony and we booked it out of there. lol. But, it makes me wonder what would ever push someone to fight about the words of God. Because I’m definitely thinking not God himself.
But hey, Thursday was a pretty regular day. I’m getting to know the streets a whole lot better and I’m working really hard to teach my companion English. I find he is easier to get along with when I am teaching him English. lol. I am also gaining a huge testimony on service. Before when I would ask people if I could help them, they would say no. Now I just walk right up and clean their dishes or grab their broom or clothes and just do it. I thinks it's better that way. lol. I like it that way. They don’t have to make a decision. I’m just going to serve.
We had three people at church Sunday. We went to see 8 people Sunday morning and all said they would go to church. But only one out of that 8 actually came. lame. One I thought was a really cool family too.
Oh - so I also got proposed to Friday. Forgot about that. She told me she would wait a whole year and two months too. Every time she sees me she tells me "1 yr and 2 months". It’s kind of freaky. And then today we played on a slip-n-slide and played some b-ball for p-day. It was good fun. That was my week.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Monday - August 3rd 2009
So, first things first: They don’t have pouch mail anymore and I don’t know what to do. I just tried to give my APs some mail to send and they said the Church cancelled the pouch system. It’s only for important documents now.
So I’m in the capital and it is not that far inland, but I’m not as close as I was. That’s for sure. My town isn’t that dangerous actually. Well, at least not for the missionaries. They respect us. So we do work at night. And Mom - I didn’t get sick from my companions. This week has been a real hard week, but way rewarding. So, they told me I would be living with three other missionaries that are bums. Well, they were just laying around. Tuesday night I stayed up with one of the elders till after 2:00 in the morning just talking- and he definitely needed someone to talk to. I have to give much thanks to my Father in Heaven for blessing me that night with the patience and energy just to listen. And then for the words that were given to me to say to him, because mostly I just know a lot more about him and I know how to help him now. And - my companion is turning around too. Thursday he did his personal study. It was in his pajamas - but it’s still better than not doing it at all. I feel really comfortable with these people though. Probably because two of them are Americans and they understand me. But the missionary work – I’m definitely still working on. My companion was just a chicken with his head cut off the first two days of the week. But I finally was able to start jumping in and things are going way smoother. We had 8 investigators go to church this week, which is way better than the 0 of last week. And we have 5 people committed to get baptized. So the work is moving. And I was able to meet a lot more of the members this week. So, I set up days for them to go out with us this week. We won’t be teaching with young men and women this week like we did last week, because my companion I guess only taught with children before. So let’s just say changes are happening.
Today, which is our p-day by the way, we had our zone conference. It lasted for ever. This morning nobody in the house knew how to get there so we took a taxi. That took a good amount of money and then the conference didn’t end till 1:30. Then we had to eat there. And, because my zone is the zone of the APs, we had to clean up afterwards. We didn’t get home till 3:00pm. So I’m typing really fast to get out on time. lol. So the week was good.
Love You,
Elder Woestman
So I’m in the capital and it is not that far inland, but I’m not as close as I was. That’s for sure. My town isn’t that dangerous actually. Well, at least not for the missionaries. They respect us. So we do work at night. And Mom - I didn’t get sick from my companions. This week has been a real hard week, but way rewarding. So, they told me I would be living with three other missionaries that are bums. Well, they were just laying around. Tuesday night I stayed up with one of the elders till after 2:00 in the morning just talking- and he definitely needed someone to talk to. I have to give much thanks to my Father in Heaven for blessing me that night with the patience and energy just to listen. And then for the words that were given to me to say to him, because mostly I just know a lot more about him and I know how to help him now. And - my companion is turning around too. Thursday he did his personal study. It was in his pajamas - but it’s still better than not doing it at all. I feel really comfortable with these people though. Probably because two of them are Americans and they understand me. But the missionary work – I’m definitely still working on. My companion was just a chicken with his head cut off the first two days of the week. But I finally was able to start jumping in and things are going way smoother. We had 8 investigators go to church this week, which is way better than the 0 of last week. And we have 5 people committed to get baptized. So the work is moving. And I was able to meet a lot more of the members this week. So, I set up days for them to go out with us this week. We won’t be teaching with young men and women this week like we did last week, because my companion I guess only taught with children before. So let’s just say changes are happening.
Today, which is our p-day by the way, we had our zone conference. It lasted for ever. This morning nobody in the house knew how to get there so we took a taxi. That took a good amount of money and then the conference didn’t end till 1:30. Then we had to eat there. And, because my zone is the zone of the APs, we had to clean up afterwards. We didn’t get home till 3:00pm. So I’m typing really fast to get out on time. lol. So the week was good.
Love You,
Elder Woestman
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday July 27th 2009
Well how do I explain this week? So we had transfers Tuesday and it was a really long day. A little bit sad too. I had to say good bye to my APs in the campo because they are both going home. But I saw one of the other Americans in my group. I haven’t seen him since the MTC. So that was crazy cool. I have a new companion. I am his step dad - his second companion and he still has a lot to learn. But, hey work, work, work, right. We are living with two other Americans and they are both really cool. So Tuesday I’m riding in the car with the APs and the first thing that they tell me when its just me and them, is that they are my ZLs (zone leaders) as well, which is cool I guess. But then they tell me that my kid is lazy and that the other two missionaries are wasting they’re missions away as well. And that I was called to my area to make a change. So I’m just thinking “wow - ok, so this should be a fun adventure“. But the thing is that when I got there one Elder was sick. And then my companion got sick Friday and had a fever of 103.6, so we haven’t been working. We checked up on a few investigators Sunday night.
So life has been really slow and boring this week. Plus I just feel like I am going to have a real rough time in front of me. I’m not too excited because I feel like I am going to be stuck in the middle of a lot of bickering. Pray for me. But hey I’m tired.
Love Ya,
Elder Woestman
So life has been really slow and boring this week. Plus I just feel like I am going to have a real rough time in front of me. I’m not too excited because I feel like I am going to be stuck in the middle of a lot of bickering. Pray for me. But hey I’m tired.
Love Ya,
Elder Woestman
Monday, July 20, 2009
Monday, July 20th 2009
Well, I will be getting transferred this Tuesday. I am going to Cristobal. It is some area in the capital city where I am told it is the most dangerous area in the mission. And that you can't contact at night because it’s too dangerous. So that should be fun. lol. But this week was really good. We had one baptism. His name is Aneury. He is 28 yrs old and I have been working with him for a long time. It was really exciting and awesome to be able to baptize him. But a little girl that was investigating the church, and we were teaching her and her sister, died Tuesday. Wednesday we went to her funeral. It was a really sad day. Her body looked like a stuff doll. And I didn't like it at all. I pretty much cried like a baby. Wednesday we also had dumplings, which was kind of like stroganoff. I’ve never had it before but it was pretty good. A member made it for us. Friday we had our interview with Aneury and Saturday we had the baptism. Nothing crazy happened this week. Oh - and my new companion’s name is Sanchez. He is Dominican. I’ll be with Dominicans my entire mission.
Love You
ELder Woestman
Love You
ELder Woestman
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday, July 13th 2009
Well this will be a little short because I am in a location that has really bad electricity right now, so I am typing really fast. Ok - so Tuesday we had interviews with the president of the mission, Pres. Almonte, and that was really good. I should be leaving my area in 1 week. I don’t know where I am going but that will be an adventure. Thursday I had an intercombio with Elder Akana. That was nice. It was nice to be with an American, understand perfectly what he is saying, and joke around with him - and have him understand sarcasm. That’s a problem with Dominicans; there is no sarcasm. But Elder Akana has changed a lot this transfer. He is with his second companion and that is always the hardest because nobody is like your trainer, right. And then Friday we went to the temple. Talk about awesome. Then Saturday we had two baptisms. But Sunday just went crazy. One of our baptisms came to church but didn’t want to be confirmed a member because he did not feel like he was worthy. Well, I didn’t know if he was even allowed to get confirmed. So I talked to the branch pres and he said he would talk to him and that he would have to be baptized again. But then later that day I received a call from Pres. Almonte. It turns out you can’t baptize someone and have them not get confirmed. So Pres. Almonte is going to have an interview with the kid. It was just a crazy hectic day. I got a good long lecture over the cell phone. So yea, that was fun (lol) but not really. And yea, that was my week. There was a lot more I had to say but I have to go.
Love You,
Elder Woestman
Love You,
Elder Woestman
Monday, July 6, 2009
Monday, July 6th 2009
Hello Everybody;
Well, I will start out with Tuesday. Tuesday we had an intercombio with the Zone Leaders. and I got to go to Bani and be with Elder Alberts. He is a really cool guy. He teaches really weird though. Like we do contacts to set up lessons right, well when he does his contact he gets really serious and bears his testimony. It’s a really good way to do a contact I guess, but it’s just not my way. lol. I like to get to know the person a little as well- with a smile. lol. But he taught me a lot and helped me create a good study plan for my language study. It’s kind of hard to focus on studying the language when you are training a new missionary that knows Spanish. But now that my kid’s more down with things, I’m going to restart working on my Spanish more.
Thursday we had a meeting with the Assistants to the President and learned how to do our area books better. It turns out that I had no clue how to do my area book. Well, I only knew 20 percent of the things that I needed to do. So dang, I’m going to work on that now too.
Our baptism got postponed until this Saturday because we just couldn’t teach them all of things they need to know last week. These people both work and their schedules clash - and they want to get baptized together. So hopefully this week it will happen. We also built a tienda [shop, tent, awning] for an investigator Saturday. And its a sweet tienda if I do say so myself. We didn’t build it build it. We just did the inside. The building was already there. But ya, tu sabes. That was my week. Work, work, work.
Elder Woestman
Well, I will start out with Tuesday. Tuesday we had an intercombio with the Zone Leaders. and I got to go to Bani and be with Elder Alberts. He is a really cool guy. He teaches really weird though. Like we do contacts to set up lessons right, well when he does his contact he gets really serious and bears his testimony. It’s a really good way to do a contact I guess, but it’s just not my way. lol. I like to get to know the person a little as well- with a smile. lol. But he taught me a lot and helped me create a good study plan for my language study. It’s kind of hard to focus on studying the language when you are training a new missionary that knows Spanish. But now that my kid’s more down with things, I’m going to restart working on my Spanish more.
Thursday we had a meeting with the Assistants to the President and learned how to do our area books better. It turns out that I had no clue how to do my area book. Well, I only knew 20 percent of the things that I needed to do. So dang, I’m going to work on that now too.
Our baptism got postponed until this Saturday because we just couldn’t teach them all of things they need to know last week. These people both work and their schedules clash - and they want to get baptized together. So hopefully this week it will happen. We also built a tienda [shop, tent, awning] for an investigator Saturday. And its a sweet tienda if I do say so myself. We didn’t build it build it. We just did the inside. The building was already there. But ya, tu sabes. That was my week. Work, work, work.
Elder Woestman
Sunday, July 5, 2009
June 29th 2009
This week was definitely a long hard week, but it went by really fast. Tuesday we had a zone conference which was really good. I have been learning a lot about family history work. We are focusing a lot on that these days. Basically the whole conference was about family history work and how we need to get our baptisms to the temple as fast as possible. We also talked about lessons with members. Our president is the man! He has been pushing us to get more and more members involved in teaching lessons, and I have been getting more and more members involved. Before I only got like 9 "member present lessons" a week. But now I plan all my lessons with members. I got 25 this week. Things are definitely progressing. Wednesday I received 16 referrals and then I was able to contact 9 of them throughout the week with a member. We visited one lady last night and she was awesome. The work is just pushing hard, but we will see how things go with time.
Thursday I gave a man a blessing that had cancer. He has been doing really bad. When I laid my hands on his head I blessed him to be comforted for his pain would be short - And then he died that day. It was really weird. I didn’t like it.
Then Friday we did the papers for a girl, who is 17, to get baptized. But we found out later in the day that her brother forged the signature of her dad. So we went to talk to the dad to get his signature because she is under age. The father was not nice at all. He is hard core and said his daughter couldn’t get baptized until she was 18 and then it would be her decision. But we will see how that goes. I don’t think we are going to have to wait till she turns 18 because we are starting to teach him the lessons.
We didn’t have our baptism this week but we are working. Sunday was really good. I gave a talk on families at church and we got four new investigators. And that was my week.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Thursday I gave a man a blessing that had cancer. He has been doing really bad. When I laid my hands on his head I blessed him to be comforted for his pain would be short - And then he died that day. It was really weird. I didn’t like it.
Then Friday we did the papers for a girl, who is 17, to get baptized. But we found out later in the day that her brother forged the signature of her dad. So we went to talk to the dad to get his signature because she is under age. The father was not nice at all. He is hard core and said his daughter couldn’t get baptized until she was 18 and then it would be her decision. But we will see how that goes. I don’t think we are going to have to wait till she turns 18 because we are starting to teach him the lessons.
We didn’t have our baptism this week but we are working. Sunday was really good. I gave a talk on families at church and we got four new investigators. And that was my week.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Monday, June 22, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Well first things first. I didn’t write a letter last week because I was in the capital all day getting checked out by the doctor of the mission over there. I got sun poisoning Saturday and had a bad fever Saturday night. Then Sunday at church everybody thought that I had some strange sickness called “sarapion” that I guess you can die from, because I had red dots all over my body. I was thinking that I had an allergic reaction to something, but everyone was telling me how I was going to die. So I called up the wife of the Mission President and set something up to visit a doctor that is in the city closest to me. But when I went there Monday morning the lady had no clue what I had. She said I was perfectly healthy except I had red dots all over my body. So I’m firmly convinced Dominican doctors don’t know anything, because I was still thinking allergic reaction. So I went to the capital to visit the American doctor for the missionaries and he told me that I was having an allergic reaction to the sun. He gave me some powerful drugs, said to use sunscreen, and to take it easy for a while. But the thing was that by the time I got to him I was already feeling fine. I received a blessing of health in the morning and by the afternoon I was like; “why am I in the capital? Let me get back home. I have to work.” So I obeyed all the advise of the doctor except for the take it easy part. lol. How does a missionary take it easy? I just don’t know. lol.
We had another baptism Saturday. And we should have 2 more this Saturday. I have no reason to doubt that. But the President has been praying again. lol. We have been having tons of meetings as of late about everything we need to do. As of right now lessons without a member are not counted anymore in our numbers that we turn in to the Pres. and we need to get 30 lessons with members every week. We have been holding a bunch of meetings with the members telling them about how we need referrals because the pres. says that we need to get 10 referrals every week. So things have been a little loco. And we have been working a lot with the members. We got 23 member present during lessons this last week. That’s not quite 30 but we are working on it.
Right now we live about an hour and twenty minutes from the Santo Domingo temple via a bus. The bus trip costs 180 pesos (which is like $6). Getting new members to the temple is my number one priority after they get baptized these days. I try to get them to the temple doing baptisms the Tuesday a week after their baptism. Most of these people don’t really have the money, so I have been spending the money to get my baptisms to the temple their first time. And when somebody reads the Book of Mormon all the way through, I buy them a triple and a small hymn book too. That is only like 3 bucks. I know God will bless me with a good job when I get home to make up for the money that I spend on my mission to help these people.
But yea . . . work, work, work. . . . and that was my week.
Love You,
Elder Woestman
We had another baptism Saturday. And we should have 2 more this Saturday. I have no reason to doubt that. But the President has been praying again. lol. We have been having tons of meetings as of late about everything we need to do. As of right now lessons without a member are not counted anymore in our numbers that we turn in to the Pres. and we need to get 30 lessons with members every week. We have been holding a bunch of meetings with the members telling them about how we need referrals because the pres. says that we need to get 10 referrals every week. So things have been a little loco. And we have been working a lot with the members. We got 23 member present during lessons this last week. That’s not quite 30 but we are working on it.
Right now we live about an hour and twenty minutes from the Santo Domingo temple via a bus. The bus trip costs 180 pesos (which is like $6). Getting new members to the temple is my number one priority after they get baptized these days. I try to get them to the temple doing baptisms the Tuesday a week after their baptism. Most of these people don’t really have the money, so I have been spending the money to get my baptisms to the temple their first time. And when somebody reads the Book of Mormon all the way through, I buy them a triple and a small hymn book too. That is only like 3 bucks. I know God will bless me with a good job when I get home to make up for the money that I spend on my mission to help these people.
But yea . . . work, work, work. . . . and that was my week.
Love You,
Elder Woestman
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Monday June 8th 2009
Hi Everyone:
Tuesday we started out with a fast. There is a girl who is one of my baptisms whose parents haven’t been letting her go to church the past two weeks. So I told her that if she fasted her parents would turn around and that I would fast with her. And guess what. So she was praying and crying at the same time on her bed Sunday because she wanted to go to church. Her mom came up and said she could go to church because she has seen the change in her attitude and how much the church really means to her. She got to go to church. How cool is that. And we have been teaching this kid who thinks he is gay. On Sunday we found him with his hair cut and wearing guy clothes and not acting so gay. So that was actually way sweet. He still has a long way to go. Getting the hair cut is just the first step. He is 14 by the way. If he was older I probably wouldn’t have talked to him in the first place.
I have made a decision to not drink anymore juice or pop. It’s really hard but I am slowly turning around. lol.
Saturday we had two baptisms and it was amazing. I sang a musical number with two other missionaries. Can you believe that!?!. Me singing!! lol. Luckily everybody here doesn’t know how to sing and they actually think that I do know how. lol. But what was really awesome was that one of my old baptisms who is 19 has been helping me with these two baptisms. He was the one that baptized them AND he really helped a lot with teaching them. In reality I don’t think it would have been nearly as easy without him. One of their parents was having doubts and he just talked to her one night without us and the next day she was more than happy to have her kid get baptized in the church. Then Sunday we found all of the older young men together making milk shakes. So I was able to drink my first mango milkshake and it was the best mango milkshake I’ve ever had in my life. It was way good.
My dad asked me about my prayers, but they are going good. Someone suggested I wake up 15 min early every day and use that time to pray. So, I have been doing that and that really changes the day. And my companion knows I love him. And I train my kid through PME. We role play. We read. And I work his butt off. That’s pretty much my goal - for him to have problems with his feet when he is done working with me. My spiritual experiences aren’t really that huge nor interesting. So far I have sent three people from the hospital back to their houses with no more problems within 24 hours of blessing them. One with dangue fever. But what I have mostly seen is the way that the Spirit can change the actions of people. How simple reading and praying can leave behind all the bad things of the world. Every baptism is a spiritual experience. It doesn’t matter what I do that is good. It seems like the more righteous I try to become the more I realize how unrighteous I am. And the more good I try to do, the more there is that needs to be done.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Tuesday we started out with a fast. There is a girl who is one of my baptisms whose parents haven’t been letting her go to church the past two weeks. So I told her that if she fasted her parents would turn around and that I would fast with her. And guess what. So she was praying and crying at the same time on her bed Sunday because she wanted to go to church. Her mom came up and said she could go to church because she has seen the change in her attitude and how much the church really means to her. She got to go to church. How cool is that. And we have been teaching this kid who thinks he is gay. On Sunday we found him with his hair cut and wearing guy clothes and not acting so gay. So that was actually way sweet. He still has a long way to go. Getting the hair cut is just the first step. He is 14 by the way. If he was older I probably wouldn’t have talked to him in the first place.
I have made a decision to not drink anymore juice or pop. It’s really hard but I am slowly turning around. lol.
Saturday we had two baptisms and it was amazing. I sang a musical number with two other missionaries. Can you believe that!?!. Me singing!! lol. Luckily everybody here doesn’t know how to sing and they actually think that I do know how. lol. But what was really awesome was that one of my old baptisms who is 19 has been helping me with these two baptisms. He was the one that baptized them AND he really helped a lot with teaching them. In reality I don’t think it would have been nearly as easy without him. One of their parents was having doubts and he just talked to her one night without us and the next day she was more than happy to have her kid get baptized in the church. Then Sunday we found all of the older young men together making milk shakes. So I was able to drink my first mango milkshake and it was the best mango milkshake I’ve ever had in my life. It was way good.
My dad asked me about my prayers, but they are going good. Someone suggested I wake up 15 min early every day and use that time to pray. So, I have been doing that and that really changes the day. And my companion knows I love him. And I train my kid through PME. We role play. We read. And I work his butt off. That’s pretty much my goal - for him to have problems with his feet when he is done working with me. My spiritual experiences aren’t really that huge nor interesting. So far I have sent three people from the hospital back to their houses with no more problems within 24 hours of blessing them. One with dangue fever. But what I have mostly seen is the way that the Spirit can change the actions of people. How simple reading and praying can leave behind all the bad things of the world. Every baptism is a spiritual experience. It doesn’t matter what I do that is good. It seems like the more righteous I try to become the more I realize how unrighteous I am. And the more good I try to do, the more there is that needs to be done.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Monday June 1st 2009
This week was just a really successful week. I can’t really remember what happened this week though. It’s kind of all a blur and I left my journal at the house. I know I’m bad, but lets see.
Well Tuesday we had our interviews with the Mission President and that was good. It was the shortest one I’v been in yet. Kind of just asking me about my area and how my companion is…. stuff like that. Wednesday we had an intercombio and I went over to don gregorio [I don’t know what that is – according to my Spanish dictionary gregario means “herd instinct” – sorry, maybe Christine Erskine can comment on that - Laura] with Elder Akana. It was awesome good fun. But I realized a lot of things that I do differently than them. Elder Akana is knew too, so it was nice to see the way that his dad [trainer] taught him and the way I’m teaching my kid [companion]. I think my way is better. lol. Plus I noticed that I was teaching Spanish that was really awesome. When you are with someone that speaks perfect Spanish you never actually speak perfectly. And they are always correcting you, which is what I like. But when your with someone that doesn’t really know Spanish and everyone is depending on you and you notice how smooth everything is still going, your feel really good.
Saturday we didn´t have any baptisms but we are having for sure 2 this Saturday so that is cool. Sunday we had 8 investigators at church. But one of my old baptisms wasn’t at church, so we went to go look for her and it turns out her mom said the night before she wasn’t allowed to go to church anymore. If she did she was going to have to live some where else. How crazy is that right? But that’s not even what is crazy. She started praying all night and her mom saw this. So the next day her mother told her that she has seen how much she has changed for better in the church and could go to church. But by then church was over. How sweet is that, right. And then today, we went to the water fall in Ocoa again. It was way fun. And that was my week.
Love You,
Elder Woestman
Well Tuesday we had our interviews with the Mission President and that was good. It was the shortest one I’v been in yet. Kind of just asking me about my area and how my companion is…. stuff like that. Wednesday we had an intercombio and I went over to don gregorio [I don’t know what that is – according to my Spanish dictionary gregario means “herd instinct” – sorry, maybe Christine Erskine can comment on that - Laura] with Elder Akana. It was awesome good fun. But I realized a lot of things that I do differently than them. Elder Akana is knew too, so it was nice to see the way that his dad [trainer] taught him and the way I’m teaching my kid [companion]. I think my way is better. lol. Plus I noticed that I was teaching Spanish that was really awesome. When you are with someone that speaks perfect Spanish you never actually speak perfectly. And they are always correcting you, which is what I like. But when your with someone that doesn’t really know Spanish and everyone is depending on you and you notice how smooth everything is still going, your feel really good.
Saturday we didn´t have any baptisms but we are having for sure 2 this Saturday so that is cool. Sunday we had 8 investigators at church. But one of my old baptisms wasn’t at church, so we went to go look for her and it turns out her mom said the night before she wasn’t allowed to go to church anymore. If she did she was going to have to live some where else. How crazy is that right? But that’s not even what is crazy. She started praying all night and her mom saw this. So the next day her mother told her that she has seen how much she has changed for better in the church and could go to church. But by then church was over. How sweet is that, right. And then today, we went to the water fall in Ocoa again. It was way fun. And that was my week.
Love You,
Elder Woestman
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday May 25th 2009
Well to start off my week was just awesome and I will tell you why. So we got attacked by a tropical storm Wednesday and I was stuck in the middle of it. There were rushing rivers of water going though the roads. Things were flying everywhere. I had to dodge a flying baby doll that tried to take away my life. It was just ridiculously awesome. And I got soaked.
When we got home I took my tie and squeezed out like a gallon of water. No lie. Then we had to plug up the bottom of one door because the house was flooding. Oh it was good fun. And now we can’t shut the back door because the water warped the wood. So we are going to have to talk to somebody about that. lol. But . . . we are getting a cistern which will hold water. That’s in progress. By Friday that should be finished and then by Saturday we should have water all the time.
We had a baptism Saturday. That went really good. I’m trying to start up a choir with the young women here but it isn’t going very good. They don’t know how to sing and the member lady I turned it over to isn’t really working with them. So that’s lame. But I’m trying.
Sunday we had 11 investigators at church. They are going to divide our branch into 2 at the next stake conference, so that’s exciting. Yea, the work is just going awesome. I’ve been in the same area for like ever it seems. I’ve taught and I know almost everybody in this town, half of them by name. And some how I still have people to teach. It’s awesome.
Love you, Elder Woestman
When we got home I took my tie and squeezed out like a gallon of water. No lie. Then we had to plug up the bottom of one door because the house was flooding. Oh it was good fun. And now we can’t shut the back door because the water warped the wood. So we are going to have to talk to somebody about that. lol. But . . . we are getting a cistern which will hold water. That’s in progress. By Friday that should be finished and then by Saturday we should have water all the time.
We had a baptism Saturday. That went really good. I’m trying to start up a choir with the young women here but it isn’t going very good. They don’t know how to sing and the member lady I turned it over to isn’t really working with them. So that’s lame. But I’m trying.
Sunday we had 11 investigators at church. They are going to divide our branch into 2 at the next stake conference, so that’s exciting. Yea, the work is just going awesome. I’ve been in the same area for like ever it seems. I’ve taught and I know almost everybody in this town, half of them by name. And some how I still have people to teach. It’s awesome.
Love you, Elder Woestman
Monday, May 18, 2009
Monday - May 18th 2009
Hi Everyone:
Tuesday was a really interesting day. We got locked in a store. lol. While we were teaching this guy in a store that he worked in, another guy that worked there left and locked the store (lol) and that left us locked in the store. lol. We had to jump over a wall into a pen of goats and then we had to jump a 10 ft wall to get out of the place the goats were in because that door was locked too. It was good fun. lol. And these two ladies in the house across the street saw us and were just watching me like I was some robber or something. It was so funny. So I went over there and talked to them a little. I loved it.
Then Wednesday I had an intercombio with the ZL´s and I ended up being with my “dad of the mission”. So that was way good fun, working Nizau old school style. But the funniest thing happened. So at the beginning of every lesson we sing a hymn. Well, we started to sing a hymn with this lady, but this lady sang so bad - and I mean bad - that we just started laughing. I couldn’t help it. My companion laughed so I laughed. Then we stopped, but then one of us would laugh again, so we both just kept cracking up. And the whole time the lady was still singing. She wasn’t even fazed. lol. Luckily she still loves me. lol. Oh man it was so funny. lol.
And then Thursday we lost electricity. We talked to the electric people Friday and we got that back on by the end of the day. Saturday we baptized another guy who is 19. o yea sacerdocio [priesthood] or Melchizedek priesthood age. lol. Sunday was just kind of a long day and today so far it’s been raining. But good news - the owners of our house are building us a cistern. or something underground that holds water, so when that is finished we will have water all the time. How sweet is that!!!
Love Ya,
Elder Woestman
Tuesday was a really interesting day. We got locked in a store. lol. While we were teaching this guy in a store that he worked in, another guy that worked there left and locked the store (lol) and that left us locked in the store. lol. We had to jump over a wall into a pen of goats and then we had to jump a 10 ft wall to get out of the place the goats were in because that door was locked too. It was good fun. lol. And these two ladies in the house across the street saw us and were just watching me like I was some robber or something. It was so funny. So I went over there and talked to them a little. I loved it.
Then Wednesday I had an intercombio with the ZL´s and I ended up being with my “dad of the mission”. So that was way good fun, working Nizau old school style. But the funniest thing happened. So at the beginning of every lesson we sing a hymn. Well, we started to sing a hymn with this lady, but this lady sang so bad - and I mean bad - that we just started laughing. I couldn’t help it. My companion laughed so I laughed. Then we stopped, but then one of us would laugh again, so we both just kept cracking up. And the whole time the lady was still singing. She wasn’t even fazed. lol. Luckily she still loves me. lol. Oh man it was so funny. lol.
And then Thursday we lost electricity. We talked to the electric people Friday and we got that back on by the end of the day. Saturday we baptized another guy who is 19. o yea sacerdocio [priesthood] or Melchizedek priesthood age. lol. Sunday was just kind of a long day and today so far it’s been raining. But good news - the owners of our house are building us a cistern. or something underground that holds water, so when that is finished we will have water all the time. How sweet is that!!!
Love Ya,
Elder Woestman
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Monday May 11th 2009
Hi Everyone:
So this week was pretty dang good. Monday we had 1 family home evening set up and I made cookies for the family - or I should say we made the cookies together as the activity. It was sweet. We got in a little flour fight. I included all the little kids in the making of the cookies. And we eat more of the dough than we actually used to make the cookies. I’m such a bad example. lol. Then my companion taught a lesson to the family while I finished the cookies. It was a night full of craziness, which is the way I love my life. And the best part about it was that I didn’t have to buy the ingredients. This family was rich, so they even had a good stove. It was crazy. It’s been a while since I have been in a nice house. But lets see here….
Tuesday we had our district meeting, it was good. Nothing too interesting happened Tuesday though. Miercoles [Wednesday] we had a zone conference and all the zones in the campo area (outside the capital) were at the conference. Our president talked a lot about family history work. We have a new thing going down. We are now teaching our investigators about family history work for the temple before they get baptized. And that’s kind of really hard because we aren’t allowed teaching them about it. We have to bring a member with us, then after the lesson leave them with our investigator and he teaches about family history. But I’m in the way outskirts of civilization. We don’t even have an internet shop. Not many members know how to do family history work. In fact only one person in my area really knows. But its still sweet. And at the conference they feed us lunch which is always good.
Thursday and Friday we just worked, worked, worked. And Saturday we had another baptism. We were supposed to have two baptisms but it went down to one because one lady admitted to still having an alcohol problem. So I don’t know when she will get baptized now. Just depends when she feels like putting God in front of alcohol.
Sunday we only had 4 new investigators go to church and some older ones. We should have another baptism this weekend. And Sunday I was able to call my family. Yea family. That was really nice, although Ben’s life seems to be the most interesting. And yea, that was my week.
Love Ya, Elder Woestman
So this week was pretty dang good. Monday we had 1 family home evening set up and I made cookies for the family - or I should say we made the cookies together as the activity. It was sweet. We got in a little flour fight. I included all the little kids in the making of the cookies. And we eat more of the dough than we actually used to make the cookies. I’m such a bad example. lol. Then my companion taught a lesson to the family while I finished the cookies. It was a night full of craziness, which is the way I love my life. And the best part about it was that I didn’t have to buy the ingredients. This family was rich, so they even had a good stove. It was crazy. It’s been a while since I have been in a nice house. But lets see here….
Tuesday we had our district meeting, it was good. Nothing too interesting happened Tuesday though. Miercoles [Wednesday] we had a zone conference and all the zones in the campo area (outside the capital) were at the conference. Our president talked a lot about family history work. We have a new thing going down. We are now teaching our investigators about family history work for the temple before they get baptized. And that’s kind of really hard because we aren’t allowed teaching them about it. We have to bring a member with us, then after the lesson leave them with our investigator and he teaches about family history. But I’m in the way outskirts of civilization. We don’t even have an internet shop. Not many members know how to do family history work. In fact only one person in my area really knows. But its still sweet. And at the conference they feed us lunch which is always good.
Thursday and Friday we just worked, worked, worked. And Saturday we had another baptism. We were supposed to have two baptisms but it went down to one because one lady admitted to still having an alcohol problem. So I don’t know when she will get baptized now. Just depends when she feels like putting God in front of alcohol.
Sunday we only had 4 new investigators go to church and some older ones. We should have another baptism this weekend. And Sunday I was able to call my family. Yea family. That was really nice, although Ben’s life seems to be the most interesting. And yea, that was my week.
Love Ya, Elder Woestman
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday May 4th 2009
Hi Everyone:
This week I received my kid. And as of right now I am a trainer. So my kid’s name is Elder Fondeur. He is Dominican but has French blood in him. He is 24 yrs old. A stocky, “Al Giordino” type of guy for all of you Dirk Pitt fans. (DAD!). He is a good guy. He got baptized 2 yrs and four months ago. And I’d have to say he is an interesting character. He certainly loves talking about how good he is at stuff. He was a boxer and before his mission, he studied and became a certified chef. This is kind of funny, because he doesn’t look like a chef. He was a “tigre” before his conversion into the church - meaning he was a gangster. He has tattoos and huge scars and stuff. But he is a hard worker, he does everything I say and he cooks awesome food. I can't think of a better type of person to train. But he is like all Dominicans. He doesn't like to talk about his faults or how he is doing stuff wrong. But I already know how to deal with that from my last companion, he is awesome.
Tuesday was transfer day. We just worked really hard all week trying to put a good work ethic in my companion. But from what I’ve seen he already has it. We ended up pushing our baptisms back a week. So now we have 2 baptisms this weekend.
This Sunday was sweet. We got three inactives to go back to church and two of them are males so if they stay active we only need one more male and we can split the branch and turn our district into a stake. So that’s kind of exciting. Today, Monday, we played some backyard baseball. It was sweet. I hit more home runs than I did not by times two. It was awesome. Our bat was a leg to one of those small tables in the churches. And the ball was a “ghetto- torn up” ball, but it was sweet fun. And yea that was my week
love you,
Elder Woestman
This week I received my kid. And as of right now I am a trainer. So my kid’s name is Elder Fondeur. He is Dominican but has French blood in him. He is 24 yrs old. A stocky, “Al Giordino” type of guy for all of you Dirk Pitt fans. (DAD!). He is a good guy. He got baptized 2 yrs and four months ago. And I’d have to say he is an interesting character. He certainly loves talking about how good he is at stuff. He was a boxer and before his mission, he studied and became a certified chef. This is kind of funny, because he doesn’t look like a chef. He was a “tigre” before his conversion into the church - meaning he was a gangster. He has tattoos and huge scars and stuff. But he is a hard worker, he does everything I say and he cooks awesome food. I can't think of a better type of person to train. But he is like all Dominicans. He doesn't like to talk about his faults or how he is doing stuff wrong. But I already know how to deal with that from my last companion, he is awesome.
Tuesday was transfer day. We just worked really hard all week trying to put a good work ethic in my companion. But from what I’ve seen he already has it. We ended up pushing our baptisms back a week. So now we have 2 baptisms this weekend.
This Sunday was sweet. We got three inactives to go back to church and two of them are males so if they stay active we only need one more male and we can split the branch and turn our district into a stake. So that’s kind of exciting. Today, Monday, we played some backyard baseball. It was sweet. I hit more home runs than I did not by times two. It was awesome. Our bat was a leg to one of those small tables in the churches. And the ball was a “ghetto- torn up” ball, but it was sweet fun. And yea that was my week
love you,
Elder Woestman
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday - April 27th 2009
This was actually a really interesting week between everything that happened. Nothing really super exciting - but a little more interesting than usual. I got a phone call from the Mission President last Monday, right when I was about to finish sending letters. You won’t believe what happened. I am going to be a trainer - I am going to train a new missionary and I only have been out 6 months. I am going to receive this kid tomorrow. He will be a Dominican. It’s a little crazy. I don’t remember his name. Nor do I know what he looks like. And I’m kind of a little nervous about that. Not a lot but a little. I mean who wouldn’t be? Right? So that’s cool.
Anyways, Tuesday was a pretty normal day. But miercoles [Wednesday] was the interesting day. So in the morning we had a zone conference with the AP´s. That was really good. They actually told us that we were doing awesome and were one of the best Zones in the mission. So that’s exciting to know. They also talked about how to better our district meetings. But Wednesday night was the more interesting part. So my companion and I got in a fight. But it was weirder than weird, because I don’t know exactly what I said to him that started it, but it started out with him throwing a chair at the wall…. then screaming…. and walking around hitting things. After I calmed him down, he ended up telling me he was sorry and how bad his life was. Then he started crying. He told me about his life for two hours, while crying through the whole thing. I didn’t understand it all, because he wasn’t speaking very clearly at this time. But I pretty much heard every bad thing that has been going through his life since he was probably ten. So, I know a lot about my companion now. And then I gave him a hug and put him to bed. Literally, he was holding on to me and I walked him to his bed. It was a really weird experience, and it was late. It lasted forever. So I don’t really know how to explain it. And yea, that was my Wednesday night. Thursday morning was a little awkward, but that was only to be expected.
Thursday and Friday were pretty normal. Saturday I had another baptism. Her name is Lillian. She is 34 and really cool. But the thing was that I kind of baptized my phone as well as her. lol. So that night I went to a friend’s store and he fixed my phone for free. Oh-yea!! It’s nice to know and be friends with everyone in a city. So I didn’t even have to tell the AP´s or anything and feel like an idiot in front of them. Sunday we had 10 investigators go to church, and we should be having at least two baptisms this coming Saturday. So that’s exciting that I’ll get to start out my kid with two baptisms. And that was my week.
Love ya,
Elder Woestman
Anyways, Tuesday was a pretty normal day. But miercoles [Wednesday] was the interesting day. So in the morning we had a zone conference with the AP´s. That was really good. They actually told us that we were doing awesome and were one of the best Zones in the mission. So that’s exciting to know. They also talked about how to better our district meetings. But Wednesday night was the more interesting part. So my companion and I got in a fight. But it was weirder than weird, because I don’t know exactly what I said to him that started it, but it started out with him throwing a chair at the wall…. then screaming…. and walking around hitting things. After I calmed him down, he ended up telling me he was sorry and how bad his life was. Then he started crying. He told me about his life for two hours, while crying through the whole thing. I didn’t understand it all, because he wasn’t speaking very clearly at this time. But I pretty much heard every bad thing that has been going through his life since he was probably ten. So, I know a lot about my companion now. And then I gave him a hug and put him to bed. Literally, he was holding on to me and I walked him to his bed. It was a really weird experience, and it was late. It lasted forever. So I don’t really know how to explain it. And yea, that was my Wednesday night. Thursday morning was a little awkward, but that was only to be expected.
Thursday and Friday were pretty normal. Saturday I had another baptism. Her name is Lillian. She is 34 and really cool. But the thing was that I kind of baptized my phone as well as her. lol. So that night I went to a friend’s store and he fixed my phone for free. Oh-yea!! It’s nice to know and be friends with everyone in a city. So I didn’t even have to tell the AP´s or anything and feel like an idiot in front of them. Sunday we had 10 investigators go to church, and we should be having at least two baptisms this coming Saturday. So that’s exciting that I’ll get to start out my kid with two baptisms. And that was my week.
Love ya,
Elder Woestman
Monday, April 20, 2009
Monday April 20th 2009
So this week was interesting. Tuesday I had my interview with the president for the transfer and he told me I was going to stay in Nizau for another 6 weeks. I don’t know for sure though, that’s just what he hinted at. But that’s cool.
So we have a really sweet investigator. Her name is Lillian and we gave her a Book of Mormon on Tuesday. In four days she read 20 chapters. How crazy is that. You may not think that it is too crazy but it is, because people here can’t read. But she read 20 chapters and remembered everything she read. She was talking about the dream of Nephi and the two churches, the one of the devil and the one of the lamb. So she is awesome. And then this week we had an elder sick in my district. So my companion and I have been going on intercombios with them all the rest of the week. We were taking turns staying with the sick elder and doing both areas.
But now Saturday was a crazy day. So in the morning we watched the restoration video with Lillian, our sweet investigator, but she didn’t have a remote to change the language from English to Spanish. So then I had to translate the whole movie for her. It was crazy hard, but it was also really sweet that I could do that. It told me how much I have progressed and need to be grateful for. Then I went up to Don-Gregorio to do an intercombio. And the day was crazy because we both had a million things to do. So we were running the whole day. Then I got some beans and rice to eat, in a container, to eat at the house but then at the end of the day I tripped and fell and scrapped up my arm and my container of rice flew up in the air so I scrambled to go get it. I caught it because I’m lucky like that. lol. Then these two ladies just started laughing at me. It was good fun. lol. But then there was this huge cool looking dog. So I went up to pet the dog and the dog jumped up and knocked the food out of my hand and eats it all. It was just not my day. I was just never meant to eat my food. lol.
We also started working in a new area called Santana which we have to take a bus to. We have 14 new investigators over there and we just went out one afternoon. So I’m excited to see how things well go over there this next week. But - yea that was my week. There are some more pictures on the blog.
Love You
Elder Woestman
So we have a really sweet investigator. Her name is Lillian and we gave her a Book of Mormon on Tuesday. In four days she read 20 chapters. How crazy is that. You may not think that it is too crazy but it is, because people here can’t read. But she read 20 chapters and remembered everything she read. She was talking about the dream of Nephi and the two churches, the one of the devil and the one of the lamb. So she is awesome. And then this week we had an elder sick in my district. So my companion and I have been going on intercombios with them all the rest of the week. We were taking turns staying with the sick elder and doing both areas.
But now Saturday was a crazy day. So in the morning we watched the restoration video with Lillian, our sweet investigator, but she didn’t have a remote to change the language from English to Spanish. So then I had to translate the whole movie for her. It was crazy hard, but it was also really sweet that I could do that. It told me how much I have progressed and need to be grateful for. Then I went up to Don-Gregorio to do an intercombio. And the day was crazy because we both had a million things to do. So we were running the whole day. Then I got some beans and rice to eat, in a container, to eat at the house but then at the end of the day I tripped and fell and scrapped up my arm and my container of rice flew up in the air so I scrambled to go get it. I caught it because I’m lucky like that. lol. Then these two ladies just started laughing at me. It was good fun. lol. But then there was this huge cool looking dog. So I went up to pet the dog and the dog jumped up and knocked the food out of my hand and eats it all. It was just not my day. I was just never meant to eat my food. lol.
We also started working in a new area called Santana which we have to take a bus to. We have 14 new investigators over there and we just went out one afternoon. So I’m excited to see how things well go over there this next week. But - yea that was my week. There are some more pictures on the blog.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday - April 13th 2009
Oh my goodness, where to start… so first of all I will start with today because I remember today. So we went on a scavenger hunt this Monday for P-Day. It was hilarious. I put a few photos up on the blog from the scavenger hunt because some things we had to take pictures of. So, I’m just going crazy on this scavenger hunt. We have to like find gangster duds, chicks in the ice cream store, a banana truck, just a bunch of random things right - and one of them was to find a crazy loco guy. Well, we found this bum that looked pretty messed up. So I go to get a picture of him AND HE STARTS SPASING ON ME! I freaked out. He was punching random nothings in the air and I was right behind him. I just fall on the ground and run and started laughing my head off. But I did get a picture of him – it’s just far away. And - he is not to be confused with the picture of the guy eating the garbage either. No. For that is another guy. But the picture of me and the gangster guy is my favorite. When I found him he was trying to stick his daughter of 12 yrs into the dumpster across the street. But now he is like a good friend and he speaks English. At the end of the little scavenger hunt we added everything up and my “keepo soo” won. We just rock.
Sunday was just a way good day but also a way bummer day as well. It was a bummer because none of my investigators that were going to get baptized this next Saturday came to church. It was awesome though because 2 of my most important future baptisms came to church. They are going to get baptized the next Saturday after this one. And - I say my important ones because they are not kids. I love kids, but we always have a lot of kids that want to get baptized. The best baptisms are the people at least over 16. The two I’m talking about are a guy of 50 and a lady of 40 and she has 2 kids that are going to get baptized too - 16 and 17. So that’s sweeter than sweet.
Saturday we had another baptism and then the week was just crazy because it was the week of Easter. Everybody was off school and work. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday was just awesome - then things just went down hill. Nobody wanted to talk to us. Everybody started drinking, so that was not cool. But we still did good. Wednesday when I did the district meeting I finally did my interviews that I’ve been wanting to do with all my missionaries. The interviews went way good. Then the AP´s came and taught us how to do our daily planning more effectively.
We also moved into a new house Tuesday. Our new house is huge. It has three bedrooms and two baths. And there are only two of us. It’s way dang clean! The first four days that we were in our new house we didn’t have electricity or water. So that was fun. I had to take showers with the gallon jugs of water. We eat lunch together Friday and I kicked everyone’s butt in dominoes. Oh-ya. But yea, that was my week. Keeps me busy.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Sunday was just a way good day but also a way bummer day as well. It was a bummer because none of my investigators that were going to get baptized this next Saturday came to church. It was awesome though because 2 of my most important future baptisms came to church. They are going to get baptized the next Saturday after this one. And - I say my important ones because they are not kids. I love kids, but we always have a lot of kids that want to get baptized. The best baptisms are the people at least over 16. The two I’m talking about are a guy of 50 and a lady of 40 and she has 2 kids that are going to get baptized too - 16 and 17. So that’s sweeter than sweet.
Saturday we had another baptism and then the week was just crazy because it was the week of Easter. Everybody was off school and work. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday was just awesome - then things just went down hill. Nobody wanted to talk to us. Everybody started drinking, so that was not cool. But we still did good. Wednesday when I did the district meeting I finally did my interviews that I’ve been wanting to do with all my missionaries. The interviews went way good. Then the AP´s came and taught us how to do our daily planning more effectively.
We also moved into a new house Tuesday. Our new house is huge. It has three bedrooms and two baths. And there are only two of us. It’s way dang clean! The first four days that we were in our new house we didn’t have electricity or water. So that was fun. I had to take showers with the gallon jugs of water. We eat lunch together Friday and I kicked everyone’s butt in dominoes. Oh-ya. But yea, that was my week. Keeps me busy.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Monday, April 6, 2009
Monday, April 6th 2009
So hey:
My week was pretty sweet. Monday I had a really cool experience. I bought a cake for this investigator for his birthday. We called up his friend to get us in the house when he wasn´t there and we waited for him with candles lit and everything. It was really exciting right…… but then he walks in and he sees the cake and does nothing. He was like amazed and the whole environment got really awkward. So I start cutting the cake, but he is still not talking. Then he starts talking to me and he was holding back tears. He started telling me how nobody had ever bought him a cake before on his birthday and it was way moving. I almost cried too and the whole thing got even more awkward -but it was way cool. It’s amazing how much a cake can do for someone.
Tuesday I had an intercombio with the Zone Leaders and it was good. I was with my “grandpa in the mission” Elder Johnson. We worked it hard and it felt good. My Dominican companion is kind of lazy, and I’m not being very patient with it. lol. So it was nice to work hard and also not to be in charge for a change. lol.
Then Wednesday was the district meeting. It was good and then on Thursday we gave a blessing to a really sick lady and she was up and running around the next day! Blessings are so weird. I don’t even know how to describe blessings, because I can’t even remember what I say in them. But this was my first blessing in Spanish that I gave myself. So it was really cool.
Then Friday Elder Akana, who is a new missionary in my district, had his first Dominican girl ask him to marry him. She was 40. lol. And then I got kind of sick Friday and I’ve been kind of sick all weekend but this weekend was just sweet. I am fully in love with general conference. It was awesome. We slept over at the Zone Leaders’ house and just partied all night (the way missionaries can), lol, which was basically playing Phase 10. lol. But naw, I committed 8 people to baptism. And we are having one this weekend. So that’s exciting. General conference just ruined my baptisms though because investigators have to go to church twice in a row before they can be baptized. And if conference wouldn’t of been in Boni, which is a 40 min bus ride from Nizao, my investigators would have gone and I would have had 2 baptisms this weekend and 5 the next. Oh well. Conference still rocked, but hey, that was my week.
Love You
Elder Woestman
My week was pretty sweet. Monday I had a really cool experience. I bought a cake for this investigator for his birthday. We called up his friend to get us in the house when he wasn´t there and we waited for him with candles lit and everything. It was really exciting right…… but then he walks in and he sees the cake and does nothing. He was like amazed and the whole environment got really awkward. So I start cutting the cake, but he is still not talking. Then he starts talking to me and he was holding back tears. He started telling me how nobody had ever bought him a cake before on his birthday and it was way moving. I almost cried too and the whole thing got even more awkward -but it was way cool. It’s amazing how much a cake can do for someone.
Tuesday I had an intercombio with the Zone Leaders and it was good. I was with my “grandpa in the mission” Elder Johnson. We worked it hard and it felt good. My Dominican companion is kind of lazy, and I’m not being very patient with it. lol. So it was nice to work hard and also not to be in charge for a change. lol.
Then Wednesday was the district meeting. It was good and then on Thursday we gave a blessing to a really sick lady and she was up and running around the next day! Blessings are so weird. I don’t even know how to describe blessings, because I can’t even remember what I say in them. But this was my first blessing in Spanish that I gave myself. So it was really cool.
Then Friday Elder Akana, who is a new missionary in my district, had his first Dominican girl ask him to marry him. She was 40. lol. And then I got kind of sick Friday and I’ve been kind of sick all weekend but this weekend was just sweet. I am fully in love with general conference. It was awesome. We slept over at the Zone Leaders’ house and just partied all night (the way missionaries can), lol, which was basically playing Phase 10. lol. But naw, I committed 8 people to baptism. And we are having one this weekend. So that’s exciting. General conference just ruined my baptisms though because investigators have to go to church twice in a row before they can be baptized. And if conference wouldn’t of been in Boni, which is a 40 min bus ride from Nizao, my investigators would have gone and I would have had 2 baptisms this weekend and 5 the next. Oh well. Conference still rocked, but hey, that was my week.
Love You
Elder Woestman
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday March 30th 2009
Well this week was crazy and a little depressing. So Tuesday I had my first district meeting and I started it. Had it all planned out. Then the AP´s called and said they were coming to my district meeting and to wait for them. So of course I was then nervous. So they came and were all like taking notes, looking as if my eternal salvation all depended on the notes they were taking. lol. They were pretty intimidating and I don’t know why either. But, I still thought my first district meeting was awesome. I focused our district meeting on bringing reverence to the sacrament meeting and specifically during the sacrament. I set out the plan of how we were going to teach key families and leaders about how important the sacrament is and commit them to pray through the whole passing and blessing of the sacrament. But, then to my surprise the AP´s [assistants to the mission president] got up and talked about the same thing. They expounded on my lesson and set up something called a “cosecha” with us - which is a “reaping of the harvest” or so I believe. And they said that we needed to get all the priesthood holders 16 years old and up and teach them about the importance of the “santa cena” [Holy Sacrament] Friday night. Then Saturday they were going to come out. Every missionary with 1 or 2 members was going to go out and all together we were going to visit every member in the branch in one hour, about the importance of the “santa cena” and commit them to pray through the whole thing. It was really cool and really exciting to think about. So my district worked hard on gathering the people for Friday. We had 20 people show up which was almost all of them that could. We taught them all about the importance of the “santa cena” and about what we were going to do Saturday. But then Saturday only the president of the rama [branch] and 3 other people showed up. And the AP´s were an hour and a half late. And we weren’t able to do the “cosecha”. I was pretty up set. Especially with the AP´s, because I spent lots of time with that and because of it only two of my 9 investigators showed up for church since I didn’t have time to remind them about church Saturday because I was stuck in the church building.
But I did do a baptism Saturday and it was good. His whole family showed up and they aren’t members so maybe we’ll get to teach his family with time. Wednesday we had our zone conference. It was my first Zone conference that I actually understood. So that was good. But I also realized that it wasn’t very organized at all. The president wanted to talk about our numbers - like always, focusing on our baptisms. But it was basically a couple missionaries arguing with him about his ideas. Then the other missionaries were all bearing their testimonies about his ideas. We only talked about 3 things in 2 and a half hours: committing our investigators to get baptized after sacrament meeting, using members more in our lessons, and baptize more people. So I thought that was actually kind of funny. But yea that was my week. Not to interesting. Just working. lol.
Elder Woestman
But I did do a baptism Saturday and it was good. His whole family showed up and they aren’t members so maybe we’ll get to teach his family with time. Wednesday we had our zone conference. It was my first Zone conference that I actually understood. So that was good. But I also realized that it wasn’t very organized at all. The president wanted to talk about our numbers - like always, focusing on our baptisms. But it was basically a couple missionaries arguing with him about his ideas. Then the other missionaries were all bearing their testimonies about his ideas. We only talked about 3 things in 2 and a half hours: committing our investigators to get baptized after sacrament meeting, using members more in our lessons, and baptize more people. So I thought that was actually kind of funny. But yea that was my week. Not to interesting. Just working. lol.
Elder Woestman
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday March 23rd 2009
Hi:
I finally got the package from the family and everything is good here, but I am in a rush. So my letter may be a little shorter
Everything freak’n happened this week. First of all, Tuesday there were transfers and my trainer is no more in my life. Well, he is in my life but not as my trainer. He is my Zone leader now. So that’s kind of cool. But now I have a Dominican as a companion so that’s freak’n awesome. But he is definitely way different than me. For one he doesn’t eat. Like literally. Only bread. It’s weird and I don’t know what to do for lunch. lol. But it's all good.
Then Thursday I received a phone call and I am now a District leader. So that is awesome. But I kind of have a lot of responsibility - and we got two more missionaries Thursday in Don Gregorio, which is part of my district. So we helped move them into their house Thursday.
Saturday we didn’t have any baptisms. But Sunday we talked to our investigators and we should have one next Saturday and two more the Saturday afterwards. But yea, my mind’s going crazy. I have too many things to do these days. I’m not just that kid that doesn’t have to do anything anymore. But hey :)
Love You
Elder Woestman
I finally got the package from the family and everything is good here, but I am in a rush. So my letter may be a little shorter
Everything freak’n happened this week. First of all, Tuesday there were transfers and my trainer is no more in my life. Well, he is in my life but not as my trainer. He is my Zone leader now. So that’s kind of cool. But now I have a Dominican as a companion so that’s freak’n awesome. But he is definitely way different than me. For one he doesn’t eat. Like literally. Only bread. It’s weird and I don’t know what to do for lunch. lol. But it's all good.
Then Thursday I received a phone call and I am now a District leader. So that is awesome. But I kind of have a lot of responsibility - and we got two more missionaries Thursday in Don Gregorio, which is part of my district. So we helped move them into their house Thursday.
Saturday we didn’t have any baptisms. But Sunday we talked to our investigators and we should have one next Saturday and two more the Saturday afterwards. But yea, my mind’s going crazy. I have too many things to do these days. I’m not just that kid that doesn’t have to do anything anymore. But hey :)
Love You
Elder Woestman
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday, March 9th 2009
Hey.
My dad asked me what my companion is like and a little about where I live. Well, my companion is 6 ft tall, has kind of funky teeth, and isn't the cleanest person - not like house-wise but like person wise. I never touch him because he wears the same shirt twice before he washes it and picks his nose and stuff. Other than that he is a pretty good guy. He has no problems with working hard and only speaks Spanish to me so I can't complain too much. I live in Nizao of Baní. It isn't a super poor area. It is full of lower middle class people with poor people and a few famous baseball players are from here. Every Saturday there is a party at the park in the center of the city. There are colmados all over the place which is where we get food. Colmados are like small family stores with the basics. Some are bigger than others. But yea, that's my town. just a small little place.
So Tuesday was a pretty normal day. Nothing super exciting happened. Wednesday my companion went to the capital to go to the dentist because he broke one of his teeth. So I was on an intercombio with Elder Guzman Wednesday. It was awesome because I was the senior companion since we were in Nizao. So besides having to speak Spanish more than usual, I also decided what we did all day and we worked! I worked Guzman hard. We ran and hit up everybody who was anybody. We taught 9 lessons to investigators, 4 with a member present, 5 predicad mi Evangelio lessons, and did a million relompagos - which are lightning visits - meaning we jump in, say hi and offer a pray to old investigators. It was sweet.
We didn't have water for 4 days this week. So I took showers with bad water from a thing in the back yard then rinsed with clean water from huge jugs that we buy to drink. It was no fun but made me truly grateful when the water came back. Thursday we had interviews with the President and that was sweet. My companion is leaving me in two Wednesdays and I am receiving a Latino for a companion. Oh ya! I am excited, and we baptized two more people Saturday. On Sunday the President came to our church and told everybody how he was going to split the ward because we have so many people now. He is sending two more missionaries in next week. So I'm excited because life is crazy and the work is crazy. So life rocks and people are getting baptized - so life's even better. So Saturday we baptized two people. One was the daughter of an investigator family we have who the parents haven't been able to be baptized because of problems with papers and stuff for marriage. But their 8 yr old daughter was baptized and I baptized her. The other person is a friend of the girl we baptized last week. But when I baptized this girl my pants ripped because she was so small and I had to bend down so far that my paints ripped and now have a huge hole. But nobody realized except for me and nobody still knows. But now I have to sow up my pants before my companion finds out and laughs at me. So that was fun. Sorry my letter is small this week. I have to run. We spent all day in Ocoa at the waterfalls there and now I have no time to write my letters, but I'll talk about that next week.
love you
Elder Woestman
Monday, March 2, 2009
Monday March 2nd 2009
First of all, I love the members in my ward. There is this one girl named Yoellisa who came to a lesson that we taught Claritsa this past week. Claritsa got baptized Saturday, but I will talk about that in a little bit . The lesson was awesome because we, being American guys and not knowing anything about women clothes and the words for them in Spanish, Yoellisa was able to help us with teaching the Law of Chastity. And she was awesome. She was telling them everything wrong with their clothes, comparing them to scriptures, and everything. Claritsa and her friends were just like “dang”, I want to be as sweet and modest as this girl”. In fact - now that I think about it we didn't even teach anything. She basically talked the whole time, which was fine with me because she was awesome. Later we also taught a 30 yr old guy the Law of Chastity and it turns out that he has 6 girlfriends. Three of which are married and he sleeps with them all. How messed up is that!?!. And apparently that’s just how he thinks it is. He just can't catch the fact that what he is doing is wrong because he says the ladies want it more than him. Luckily he is said he is going to slowly dump them because he doesn't want to get beat up by an angry husband for one.
But now to the baptisms this weekend: So we had some crazy obstacles this weekend. First off there was a festival to honor chickens Friday. What’s up with that?! It’s like a national holiday. There was a parade of people dancing in chicken outfits to some crazy music. It was pretty hilarious, but no good because all the roads were closed down and the district leaders could not get to us to do the interviews for our baptisms. So we had to move those to Saturday. Then on Saturday we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off ourselves, trying to find a close enough relative to sign one of our investigators baptism papers so he could get baptized because he is only 17. Finally, we found his evangelical grandma who we convinced to sign it for him. That was pretty funny. Then Saturday we had our 3 baptisms. Luz, who is an older lady, was baptized by her husband who is also old and almost died - he could barely pull her back up. We almost had to jump in and save them both. lol.
Tuesday we found out that we can't listen to music of any kind, not even church music. I’m going to have to turn my I-pod and speakers and then pick them up at the end of my mission. But I can live with that.
Saturday right before the baptisms my companion and I were interviewed by the AP's. and I am not aloud to speak English anymore. So that’s been interesting because my companion and I don't communicate very well - he doesn't speak English ether anymore. That was my week. I’m doing freaking awesome. Life could only be a little better if I had a bike. lol.
Love you,
Elder Woestman
But now to the baptisms this weekend: So we had some crazy obstacles this weekend. First off there was a festival to honor chickens Friday. What’s up with that?! It’s like a national holiday. There was a parade of people dancing in chicken outfits to some crazy music. It was pretty hilarious, but no good because all the roads were closed down and the district leaders could not get to us to do the interviews for our baptisms. So we had to move those to Saturday. Then on Saturday we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off ourselves, trying to find a close enough relative to sign one of our investigators baptism papers so he could get baptized because he is only 17. Finally, we found his evangelical grandma who we convinced to sign it for him. That was pretty funny. Then Saturday we had our 3 baptisms. Luz, who is an older lady, was baptized by her husband who is also old and almost died - he could barely pull her back up. We almost had to jump in and save them both. lol.
Tuesday we found out that we can't listen to music of any kind, not even church music. I’m going to have to turn my I-pod and speakers and then pick them up at the end of my mission. But I can live with that.
Saturday right before the baptisms my companion and I were interviewed by the AP's. and I am not aloud to speak English anymore. So that’s been interesting because my companion and I don't communicate very well - he doesn't speak English ether anymore. That was my week. I’m doing freaking awesome. Life could only be a little better if I had a bike. lol.
Love you,
Elder Woestman
Monday, February 23, 2009
Monday - Feb 23rd 2009
Hi:
So Monday we had a "noche de hogar" which is family home evening and it was the craziest one we have ever had. I don´t even know how to explain it. Everybody there was just crazy. Like there was this little girl that kept on screaming and saying she lost something and then would look under the couch. She looked under the couch like 50 times. lol. And this lady and kid kept punching each other. I don´t know how to describe it. lol. There was just no order. But Monday was still sweet because we watched Carlito practice with his team at the baseball field. And I wrote letters. And we played some basketball and cleaned the house some. But, now to Tuesday; so we had a Zone Conference Tuesday. That was sweet because we went to Azua - my first area and i got to see a lot of the old Zone. We even got cake at the end, but the Mission President said that everybody is going to be staying in their areas for one more transfer at least. So I'm going to be in Nizao for one more transfer after this. Which is nice to know. Wednesday was just a normal day teaching the gospel stuff. I'll talk about my investigators at the end of this letter. Thursday we had a surprise house inspection by the Zone Leader's. lol. It was no good. Apparently our house is not very clean. But it wasn't bad either. They weren't mad at us or anything, because they kept saying that the Spirit in our house was awesome - we just need to clean it. I thought that was a little funny because I was fasting that day.
Then on Friday we got to go to the temple because we meet our zone goals. So that was sweet. I love the temple, but the day flew by. We woke up early to be picked up by a bus full of just missionaries. We got to the capital at like 10, went through the temple and got back to the apartment by 1. Then we were out by 2:30 working again. So it was like a normal day except the temple was thrown in there some how. lol.
Saturday I thought I was going to die. It was late at night and we were walking in a deserted part of town with some pretty ghetto houses heading to another area were we had an appointment. While we were walking I heard growling behind us - like two cats going at it hard core. So I didn't think much of it since that happens. But then the sound got closer so i look behind me and there is this figure running at us growling. So I am like "WHAT THE" and then this kid runs underneath a light and he was loco. First of all he was naked. His teeth were all messed up and he was growling like he had rabies or something. I thought he was going to try to attack us, but he stopped once he got into the light and does this sideways walk/slide thing back into the darkness in between two houses. My skin was literally crawling. This kid sounded and looked that freaky. So yea. I was pretty much watching my back all night when we were walking to our appointments. I am glad that's over. That kid freaks me out just writing about him.
But now to the best part of the week - Sunday. So we had 14 investigators come to church and we have definitely 3 people getting baptized. And if we get the papers so this one family can be married, we will have 6-7 baptisms this week. How awesome is that! I am so excited for Saturday. We had so many investigators that we had to stick the children investigators in regular classes and we were kicked out of the investigator class that we usually attend (because there was not room for us). So that was exciting.
I taught piano lessons again. Which I find hilarious because I have no clue how to play the piano.
Cloudia is going to be baptized the week after this coming Saturday. So, we are finally starting to get rolling here in Nizao. But the best part is that President Almonte. who is the mission president, is visiting our branch Sunday and he is going to see maybe 6 people confirmed with the Holy Ghost, and be like "dang these kids are sweet". lol. but yea that was my week.
love you,
Elder Woestman
So Monday we had a "noche de hogar" which is family home evening and it was the craziest one we have ever had. I don´t even know how to explain it. Everybody there was just crazy. Like there was this little girl that kept on screaming and saying she lost something and then would look under the couch. She looked under the couch like 50 times. lol. And this lady and kid kept punching each other. I don´t know how to describe it. lol. There was just no order. But Monday was still sweet because we watched Carlito practice with his team at the baseball field. And I wrote letters. And we played some basketball and cleaned the house some. But, now to Tuesday; so we had a Zone Conference Tuesday. That was sweet because we went to Azua - my first area and i got to see a lot of the old Zone. We even got cake at the end, but the Mission President said that everybody is going to be staying in their areas for one more transfer at least. So I'm going to be in Nizao for one more transfer after this. Which is nice to know. Wednesday was just a normal day teaching the gospel stuff. I'll talk about my investigators at the end of this letter. Thursday we had a surprise house inspection by the Zone Leader's. lol. It was no good. Apparently our house is not very clean. But it wasn't bad either. They weren't mad at us or anything, because they kept saying that the Spirit in our house was awesome - we just need to clean it. I thought that was a little funny because I was fasting that day.
Then on Friday we got to go to the temple because we meet our zone goals. So that was sweet. I love the temple, but the day flew by. We woke up early to be picked up by a bus full of just missionaries. We got to the capital at like 10, went through the temple and got back to the apartment by 1. Then we were out by 2:30 working again. So it was like a normal day except the temple was thrown in there some how. lol.
Saturday I thought I was going to die. It was late at night and we were walking in a deserted part of town with some pretty ghetto houses heading to another area were we had an appointment. While we were walking I heard growling behind us - like two cats going at it hard core. So I didn't think much of it since that happens. But then the sound got closer so i look behind me and there is this figure running at us growling. So I am like "WHAT THE" and then this kid runs underneath a light and he was loco. First of all he was naked. His teeth were all messed up and he was growling like he had rabies or something. I thought he was going to try to attack us, but he stopped once he got into the light and does this sideways walk/slide thing back into the darkness in between two houses. My skin was literally crawling. This kid sounded and looked that freaky. So yea. I was pretty much watching my back all night when we were walking to our appointments. I am glad that's over. That kid freaks me out just writing about him.
But now to the best part of the week - Sunday. So we had 14 investigators come to church and we have definitely 3 people getting baptized. And if we get the papers so this one family can be married, we will have 6-7 baptisms this week. How awesome is that! I am so excited for Saturday. We had so many investigators that we had to stick the children investigators in regular classes and we were kicked out of the investigator class that we usually attend (because there was not room for us). So that was exciting.
I taught piano lessons again. Which I find hilarious because I have no clue how to play the piano.
Cloudia is going to be baptized the week after this coming Saturday. So, we are finally starting to get rolling here in Nizao. But the best part is that President Almonte. who is the mission president, is visiting our branch Sunday and he is going to see maybe 6 people confirmed with the Holy Ghost, and be like "dang these kids are sweet". lol. but yea that was my week.
love you,
Elder Woestman
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday February 16th 2009
So this week was a pretty dang-good week. It all started on Tuesday when I was able to go on an intercombio with the Zone Leaders (ZL's). I love intercombios with the ZL´s. They are always a huge learning experience, but this time I went out with this Elder named Guzman, who looks Chinese but is in fact Mexican - and he will tell you he is Mexican if he even thinks you have any doubts. lol. But it was awesome because I was forced to speak Spanish and because of how the people treated me. First, right away he told me to speak louder because I was saying things correctly just not with enough confidence, because when people here see a greengo and if you mess up just once, they turn theirs ears off to you. They think, 'this kid doesn´t know Spanish' even if you do. So I was pretty much screaming the whole day. And Guzman spoke to me in Spanish the whole day. So it was weird and awesome because at the end of the day my mind was clicked into Spanish and I could understand what people were saying ten times better than I have during my whole mission. It was awesome!. So intercombios just rock. And - to top it off the ZL´s have hot water. So I was able to take a hot shower, and it was so awesome that I took a hot shower twice. lol. But, yea, now to Wednesday.
So Wednesday I was still feeling the power of Spanish within me from being out with Guzman all the day before. My companion was sick, so I made all the contacts in the morning which was awesome. and then we eat lunch at this member's house named Carlito. Now this guy is one sweet guy and he has the coolest job in the world. All he does is coach and play baseball. And he doesn´t just coach people here. During training season he goes to professional baseball teams in the states and trains professional baseball players. He is a way cool member. and we eat tacos at his house, and I'd have to say they were the best tacos ever. Everything was homemade - even the shell. It was amazing. After that, we made some more contacts and ran into this less active family that was talking to another family and the other family had a Book of Mormon. So what does that mean? Well - it means we found a golden family with friends in the church that are now taking the discussions. And we are reactivating the less active family. That's doublely awesome.
Now Thursday - this was a crazy interesting day because we have been teaching this guy who is making good enough progress but today he told us he had a dream about the spirit prison 11 yrs ago. and then goes off into this thing of how 2 yrs ago a dead guy walked into his room and told him that some guy was going to die and 2 weeks later that guy died. And he said if we didn´t believe him we could ask his cousin because he called his cousin right after the dead guy visited him - and he knew him. lol. So yea, now I don´t know how to take that investigator. Later that night there were some kids playing ball at the church that weren´t members. and they weren´t really kids because they were the same age as us, but we decided to play a quick game of ball with them to build up the rep with the little ones. lol. and we kicked their butts. 22-12!!. And we even gave them ten points at the beginning. Oh-ya!
Friday was sweet because we set a date for a family to get married since nobody in the Dominican is actually married by the law. They are working on the papers for that, so that is super exciting. Saturday was a pretty normal day - nothing special besides the party at the park was exceptionally red because of it being Valentine's Day and all. Then Sunday, so we had 9 investigators go to church. Except Angel didn´t go. But we should have at least one baptism this weekend, so that's good. And the most messed up thing happened to me. Something I would never have thought would happened to me - a bird pooped on my head! It's true! I was in the middle of teaching about life before death to this lady and bird poop came flying out of the sky and landed on my head. I must of been saying something wrong. lol. Oh well - that was my week. It was a pretty good one.
- Elder Woestman
So Wednesday I was still feeling the power of Spanish within me from being out with Guzman all the day before. My companion was sick, so I made all the contacts in the morning which was awesome. and then we eat lunch at this member's house named Carlito. Now this guy is one sweet guy and he has the coolest job in the world. All he does is coach and play baseball. And he doesn´t just coach people here. During training season he goes to professional baseball teams in the states and trains professional baseball players. He is a way cool member. and we eat tacos at his house, and I'd have to say they were the best tacos ever. Everything was homemade - even the shell. It was amazing. After that, we made some more contacts and ran into this less active family that was talking to another family and the other family had a Book of Mormon. So what does that mean? Well - it means we found a golden family with friends in the church that are now taking the discussions. And we are reactivating the less active family. That's doublely awesome.
Now Thursday - this was a crazy interesting day because we have been teaching this guy who is making good enough progress but today he told us he had a dream about the spirit prison 11 yrs ago. and then goes off into this thing of how 2 yrs ago a dead guy walked into his room and told him that some guy was going to die and 2 weeks later that guy died. And he said if we didn´t believe him we could ask his cousin because he called his cousin right after the dead guy visited him - and he knew him. lol. So yea, now I don´t know how to take that investigator. Later that night there were some kids playing ball at the church that weren´t members. and they weren´t really kids because they were the same age as us, but we decided to play a quick game of ball with them to build up the rep with the little ones. lol. and we kicked their butts. 22-12!!. And we even gave them ten points at the beginning. Oh-ya!
Friday was sweet because we set a date for a family to get married since nobody in the Dominican is actually married by the law. They are working on the papers for that, so that is super exciting. Saturday was a pretty normal day - nothing special besides the party at the park was exceptionally red because of it being Valentine's Day and all. Then Sunday, so we had 9 investigators go to church. Except Angel didn´t go. But we should have at least one baptism this weekend, so that's good. And the most messed up thing happened to me. Something I would never have thought would happened to me - a bird pooped on my head! It's true! I was in the middle of teaching about life before death to this lady and bird poop came flying out of the sky and landed on my head. I must of been saying something wrong. lol. Oh well - that was my week. It was a pretty good one.
- Elder Woestman
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