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

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

Monday February 9th 2009

     So this week wasn´t interesting at all, but I still wouldn´t consider it a bad week at all. Sunday we had 5 investigators go to church. We should have 4 baptisms this week but actually will probably only have one because there is a youth conference sort of thing going down Saturday and  we want our investigators to go to that that are of the right age because that should be a really good experience for them. Lets see, they finished painting our house. Oh - and Wednesday we ran to the beach and I read from the Ensign which was awesome. There is nothing like the sound of the beach; waves crashing and birds chirping . . . and there I am underneath a coconut tree reading the Ensign. That's what I call an awesome experience.
     So we also meet this really cool member and went to his house. This guy trains baseball players. He goes up to America and goes from team to team and trains professional baseball players. He is sweet. He has his own baseball field in his backyard. and is making us tacos miercoles - so that's sweet. What else.... we meet this lady that works for the Peace Corp. and she is working on a latrine project. A lot of houses don´t have bathrooms. Also, it was transfer week last week so I meet the new people in my district this week. We have 2 sister missionaries in our district now. We played basketball today for P-Day but hey it wasn´t to bad. But ya that's it. Not too much is going down
Sincerely,
       Elder Woestman

February 2nd 2009

  This week we found the sweetest investigator ever. His name is Angel and he is what we would classify as an escogido, or a chosen one. He rocks. He is the first investigator that I have had that read everything we asked him to the first time we asked him. Usually it takes at least 2 visits, but he has been reading everything when he is supposed to and came to church on Sunday. He is awesome. He is 16 and will be a great help to the Young Men's program down here.
   We had 3 investigators at Church Sunday. Which is pretty good. Our one family couldn't come though cause they had some sort of family reunion or something. lame. But yea, we also had a baptism Saturday, and it was awesome cause the water wasn't working at the church so Laflaca, who got baptized, was able to get baptized in the ocean. how awesome is that. i wish i was baptized in the ocean. I wish I was the one to baptize her, but we had a member do it which is better in the long run.
    Now for the funny experience of the week. So we were teaching this lady and at the end we asked her to say the pray and she said OK. So we all bow our heads but she doesn't talk so we figure she is saying it to herself, which a lot of people we teach for the first time do, even though we teach them how to pray. But ten minutes go by and she lays her head on a table next to her. Then five min. go by and I say "hermana" which is sister in Spanish and she wakes up. Yep, she was asleep. lol. I think she thought that we were saying it or something but, it was pretty funny. I slid it off like it was supposed to happen but I just died laughing once I walked out that door. lol. This week was just awesome. We had so many investigators that we had to run to try to get to the next ones on time cause we would take to long in our other lessons. I love that feeling. And, if all goes well we should have 4 baptisms in 2 weeks, maybe 5, and that would just be amazing. 4 in one Saturday.
       Love you lots,   Elder Woestman