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

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

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

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

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