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
Monday, June 22, 2009
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
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