"The worth of every soul is great"

Well hello there everyone! 

It seems as though you are all enjoying your summer! That is awesome! I am so happy for you all! Well just in case you are wondering, everything here is going great! There are people everywhere and smells everywhere... bad and good!  Haha.  Brooklyn is so busy, crazy and unpredictable... that it is almost becoming predictable haha :) 

This last week was good! I have been out for 5 months now. It is pretty crazy because it doesn't really seem real! I don't really know how to explain it. I feel like I just got here, but at the same time, not really! Haha. Elder Martinez and I are having a really good time working and learning together. He loves the Gospel and has a great testimony.  I love him so much! We have a blast together and we always make each other laugh! Now all we need is some people to teach! :) I gave a talk in church yesterday and that was interesting ... seeing as I barely speak Spanish! Crazy, but it went okay though I think! I talked about every member being a missionary! I based my talk upon the talks from Russel M. Nelson and Neil L. Anderson from the last General Conference!  In the talk I said, "Hey, look at what we have!! The gospel is something so so special and we need to share it with everyone!" :) So I hope that the members feel how we feel as missionaries!  Seriously without people sharing the gospel on their own efforts the results of bringing other to Christ can be slower.  But when the members are there and helping the missionaries with one of their friends...BOOM! It is so awesome and it works!  I mean, look at Chris Ahrens!  He is serving right now and doing the same thing! :) We need every member to be a missionary! 

So right now we are in the mode of trying to visit with members in our ward area to find people who are interested in more about the gospel! All I want to do is bless the lives of others and help them realize that there is so much more to life than it may seem!  I am loving being a missionary and yes, at times it can be tough when so much of our time is spent trying to figure out how to find those individuals who are seeking the truth. We are trying to show our faith and to work hard. It is tough, but I know that it is worth it!  The worth of every soul is great in the sight of God and I know that. I know that is so true and that is why I am here! 

Here is the scripture for the week. It is found in the Book of Mormon, in Alma 37:6-7.  It reads, "(6) Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.  (7) And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls." This scripture is so true because by doing small and simple things, our testimonies can grow and we can find the truth in our lives.  By these small and simple things we can learn how to apply the most important things into our lives and bring others to the knowledge and happiness we have. We can't all be perfect and amazing at everything all at once… because that would defeat the purpose of this life! We are here to learn and grow.   The only way to do this is to do so simply, with sureness in our steps and faith that as we do the right things we will be blessed.  

I really hope that you all are doing so well! I love you all so very much!

Love, 

Elder Brandon Waidmann

"Preach the gospel and if necessary use words"

"This is what my wonderful district gave me... they are the best!"

Hi everyone!!!

I hope that you are all doing so well!! So it is crazy that we are already half way through the month of July! I find that just insane... the time is going by very quick. What is insane is that by the end of this week I will have been out for 5 months. Holy cow. That is just crazy! It really is! I mean I am nowhere close to finishing my mission, but hey 5 months has gone by insanely fast! I still feel like I just got here, but in a sense I feel like I have been here for a very long time :) Which is good too!

So here is an update on things: Elder Martinez and I are loving it here! I just love him to death! We are so much alike and he is hilarious! We both love the work here but we just need some people to teach! We are so ready to bring the joy of the gospel into others lives! We just have to find them! :) I love him so much! We are pretty much the same age so we have a very similar mindset to a lot of things which is way cool! 

We are trying to read through the whole Book of Mormon in Spanish together as a companionship by the end of our first 12 weeks together! Yes, it is a pretty intense task but we are up to it! :)  Also we are trying to practice our Spanish more... because hey, this kid needs it! :) I am the whitest gringo you know from California, so I definitely need to practice :) The Lord has definitely blessed me, which is so so so great! :) 

I am loving it here! Yes it is hard, but it is fun! I am trying to lose myself in the work and to just love everything and everyone even when in New York things are pretty crazy! We have a trainer and trainee meeting this week so I will get to see Elder Wooley and Elder Martinez will get to see his MTC companion.  He is way stoked for that because they were really close.  My testimony of the Atonement has grown so much this past week! I have learned so much and it has been incredible! I love NY!!! I love you all so very much! Preach the gospel and if necessary use words :)

Love, 

Elder Waidmann

"Our solace comes from Jesus Christ"

Elder Brandon Waidmann with his signed shirt by Brandon Heath.

Elder Brandon Waidmann with his birthday gifts.

Well hello there all!!!!

I am no longer an 18 year old missionary! It is kinda sad I have to say. I loved being able to say that I was 18 and I hate having to say that I am older! Me and Elder Martinez were talking about this earlier this week! We just wish so so bad that we could go back a couple of years and enjoy the carefree life again! Growing up. Not fun! But being on a mission is! Don't get me wrong here! Being a missionary is great! I love it so much! It is fun! It is hard but I love it! :) 

So this past week was a tough one but it was good! We are trying our best to figure out ways to find new people to teach and to help learn more about our Savior, Jesus Christ! Because that is the sole reason why we are here! I am realizing something that I wish everybody could just know and understand. Being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is different. Yes. There is no denying that. And I think that is what scares a lot of people from branching out and learning more. But the thing is, it really is the best kind of different there is in the ENTIRE WORLD!!! Seriously though! It is so true! I love being a missionary! And more importantly, I love being a member of this church. There is nothing like it... the best part is that as we do the things that Jesus has asked to do we are blessed beyond measure! It is so simple I love it! All we have to do is follow Him and strive our best to be like Him! He will always pick up the slack of  what we cant accomplish ourselves because HE loves US PERFECTLY!!! It is such a cool concept if you think about it! I mean really! Why would you not want to be like Christ?! He was so perfect and He still is because He lives! :) I love trying to be like Him and I love how He loves us so much!

Being here just strengthens my testimony of the Savior and His sacrifice for us so much! Rarely do I see the same person twice and just to think... He KNOWS everything about all these people. It really is incredible! It is amazing how His sacrifice for us all is so INDIVIDUAL and universal at the same time! It is just so cool! :) Individual to where He knows how to help us, to succor, love and bless us at every single moment because He literally knows how we feel! It is just incredible. That is what I want people to know! All we have to do is follow Him! That is it! Yes there are some things that are sacrificed and changed in the process, but once you do what He wants you to do, you look back and say... "Wow, look at the good I have done and look at the changes I have made. He does know what is best for me and I am so glad that I have done this". It is so true! I can testify of that with all of my heart! THIS IS TRUE. I would not be here in Brooklyn, New York spending day after day trying to get people to believe in something that I didn't know or think was true. That is just madness. But the truth is, I do know its true... because I have asked and had the truth confirmed to me by the power of the Holy Ghost...God's messenger to us! :) I know that things are hard in life, but being a member of this Church and knowing we always have someone to lean on makes EVERYTHING we do in this life worth it.

YES... Change is hard. But accepting the Gospel and living it doesn't mean you have to leave everything behind in your life. It truly means that you have more to hold on to. You gain more hope, happiness, joy, and love for others. It truly is a miracle. I love it. I live it! And I am so happy that I do! :)

I love this scripture from the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ! The scripture is from the book of Alma, Chapter 31 Verse 31.  It reads, "O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful; wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall come upon me..."

I love this scripture so much because it speaks of how our solace comes from Jesus Christ, Himself. He is the might healer of souls. He gives us comfort and rest in times of need. He is the only way and the light! I love Him!

I love all of you so much! Thank you for reading this! Please if anything, for those of you who may not be members and are reading, I invite you to learn more. I PROMISE with all of my heart you will feel something different! You will learn and be able to treasure so many new things. You will feel greater joy in your life. I know it. :) :) I love you all so very much!

Love,
Elder Brandon Waidmann

"July is here!!"

July 1, 2013

Well hello everyone!!!

Can I say that this week has been a crazy one!!! Oh my goodness! So Tuesday was the day of transfer meeting and that is where I met my new and awesome companion Elder Martinez!!!! He is a great kid from Salt Lake City area! You know Utah! Pretty much everyone is from there it is crazy! Anyway he is from Farmington wherever that is! I just know that it is near Lagoon and I am sure that Josh and Kirsten are familiar with that...maybe?? Anyway so this week has been interesting! And tough but good! So Tuesday figures was like the most hot and humid day we have had here so far and we had to move all of his bags to our apartment! Luckily one of the companionships who was from Staten Island drove our stuff to the church for us! Yeah! That was great! So we took the train to hte Church and then had to lug the luggage back to our pad (haha no pun intended there) yeah I know bad joke! Anyway so that was good and a bit tiring and I can definitely say that we were like so soaked with ya know sweat!! It was not fun to say the least! But hey! It was something for the memory bank! It was so humid!!! Anyway so transfer meeting was really good! Elder Chan left! he was comps with Justin Casper! And they created a 10th zone in the mission that was intense!!! So the rest of the week was good! But just tough!

Since we are working the elliptical area we basically left everything behind us to start brand new here, so that means we have nobody to teach at all. So that has been tough on Elder Martinez and I! We are trying so hard! But nothing is happening just yet! but we are working that is for sure! What was awesome, is that Elder Martinez's first day here we were riding the bus to a train stop to get home after english class and boom!!! He gave a lady a Book of Mormon on the bus! It was awesome! She was telling Elder Martinez and I how her daughter wants to be a member of the church! It was kinda mind blowing to be honest! I was like for real???? And she was asking us a bunch of questions and it was just great! Hopefully something will turn out from that wonderful experience!

So here is a story from last night! After church we ate dinner and then went to the streets to talk to people and went to a park where there are a lot of people and man I had never been there on a night before and dang was there a lot of people! I guess is park day! Anyway so after that we were on our way back and we were at the train station and I saw a guy and just started talking to him and that was cool! We ended up finding out a lot about him! He was from Guatemala and was super cool! I talked to him for about 10 minutes or longer or so and this was all in Spanish! It was way cool! But he was doing a lot of the talking haha :) Anyway so at the end of the conversation....boom there was Elder Martinez right there to give him a Book of Mormon in spanish! Needless to say Elder Martinez is always ready to testify and to give! It is so great! So we both testified about the Book of Mormon and how we knew it was true and man it was great! So if anything happens from that..man that would be cool! Elder martinez is a boss! What is cool is that we are basically the same age and we are ready to work! We are excited! The work is tough, but good! And what I always say to myself is that it was hard for Christ and His ministry when He was on the Earth. He is our perfect and loving example! I love him and I love being a missionary! Yes it's hard there is no lying about that but it is great! :)

I love you all so very much!

remember this!!! it is from 1st Peter 3:15 - be ready always to give ^ban answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the ^chope that is in you (love it!!!!!) be missionaries!! Spread the good news of the Gospel!!! :)

Love, Elder Brandon Lee Waidmann

"hermana watts and I (we've been together in the same district since the first day of our missions! Pretty crazy!"

"and me and elder martinez and elder woolley and elder farmer (his brand new companion) at transfer meeting!! :)"

"so here is our name tags!!!"

Elder Waidmann also wanted this quote from Jeffery R. Holland added to his blog: 

 "Hope on. Journey on. Honestly acknowledge your questions and your concerns, but first and forever fan the flame of your faith, because all things are possible to them that believe."

"The Lord has the best in mind"

                                 

Elder Goates, Elder Woodward and Elder Waidmann

Elder Woodward and Elder Waidmann

Hello!

So as this is called crazy times you know it is crazy times! Ok so....here its the news! I am training! Oh my goodness! I am so nervous, scared, excited, confused, lost, but comforted all at the same time. Like so here is the deal.  For the past couple of weeks everybody has been saying how I am going to train another brand new missionary this next upcoming transfer and I just kept saying there is no way! I am 18 and I just barely got here and I am not even done being trained yet! So now come to this last week it is Wednesday night. The day of training calls and I am getting ready for bed in the other room and Elder Goates came in and was like "Elder Waidmann, look!" And he was talking about the phone. And I thought okay he is just kidding with me and made it looked like President Calderwood had called us. And what was funny is how about a few minutes right before all of this happened I said to Elder Goates "well it looks like I am not training!" And I was quite positive about that because there are so many missionaries in our mission and so many other missionaries that would be so much better than me to train another brand new missionary. Because hello: I still feel like I just got here! Anyway so back to the phone: he showed me and then I saw it, we had missed a call from President Calderwood. I started freaking out nonetheless and then Elder Goates called him back and then needless to say he asked to talk to me. And told me that I had been called to be a trainer this next transfer. Yep. It was true. I am still so nervous right now! I feel like I still don't know any Spanish, or where I am half the time or the people in the area. But I know that the Lord will help me if I have faith. That is just what I have to have!  So yeah that is what is going on basically! I am super nervous. But I know that the Lord has the best in mind for His Children here in New York and the missionaries here too!

So this week was pretty great! We did a lot of visits these past couple days along with baking cookies for members in the ward that Elder Goates wanted to give them too. Man I must say that I got pretty good at mixing cookies without electronic equipment! I got some good arm work outs! :) Overall though everything is going really well. We went to Staten Island for their restoration concert on Friday and it was great! I had a really good time participating in it with Hermana Pagan! Man she is such a good singer! And Sister Blosil sang too! That was so great! Then we had our restoration concert on Saturday! It went really well!  We all really enjoyed it and the spirit was just so strong throughout the entire time! It was great! I am happy that so many of us were able to feel of the strong spirit that was there and feel the truth of the message that we were presenting. It was a great feeling for sure! The week was good and everything is going pretty great. I am just nervous about tomorrow and well these next two transfers because I have to train a new Elder and I still feel brand new! Ah its scary! But I am comforted in the fact that the Lord has the best in mind for me, my new companion and His children here in New York! And also Elder Woolley is training a new Elder with me too! I saw him at the trainer meeting this week and we were sooooooooooooooooooooooo excited to see each other!!! We like raced down the hallway and gave each other the biggest hug and just were so happy that we were doing this together! :) It was great! 

Here is the scripture for the week. It is found in the Book of Mormon in Alma 38:4-5.  It says  (4)"For I know that thou wast in bonds; yea, and I also know that thou wast stoned for the word’s sake; and thou didst bear all these things with patience because the Lord was with thee; and now thou knowest that the Lord did deliver thee. (5) And now my son, Shiblon, I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day."

I love you all so very much!

Love, Elder Waidmann

"The Lord puts these awesome experiences in your life"

Well hello everyone!

This week has been really good and bust and crazy but good! It has gone by pretty quick! Everything in New York is great! I am glad that all of you are doing well! Today is Chris' 20th birthday!!!! Crazy huh!!!! Really cool though! :) Anyway! This week I got to go on an exchange with Elder Hernandez in my district and that was so much fun! We had a great time together and did some sweet stuff! We have been advertising our English class a lot because not as many people are coming and we really want to help out the community and find people to teach! I am glad that you are all doing well! That is just fantastic! Everything here is pretty sweet! The work is tough but good! Also we have been working in the elliptical a lot which is how we don't have areas anymore and our entire district has the same area and that has been really cool! There is a park that we go to now often that always has people and most importantly families! That we get to talk to which is really cool! I really like that! It gets me a chance to talk to people without them running away :) Because we are at a park! So that is way cool! :) On Saturday we played soccer with a bunch of members and youth from our ward with a bunch of Hispanic dudes and man they were so good! I was like sooooo this is how you play soccer!!! But guess what!!! I scored 2 goals!!! Like crazy huh!!!! So that was pretty sweet! I felt kinda accomplished when I did that!! Haha just kidding! But it was a lot of fun though and we are starting to get noticed in the community more which is totally and completely what we want! I mean there are thousands of people around us but we are trying our best to help others see that us missionaries are normal too! :) So that is really cool! And we are advertising a concert that we are doing centered around the restoration and that is going to be super awesome!!! It is this Saturday and Sister Blosil is coming to sing at it!! Wooo! So stoked! Elder Goates is singing too like a boss!! Because if I haven't said this before he was an opera singer back at BYU before he left and he was going to be in vocal point! How cool is that?? So needless to say he has an awesome voice! :) So that is going to be great! I am way excited for it! 

And also I had an awesome experience today when we were doing our laundry! SO I was sitting there about to pull out my conference ensign and read that when all of a sudden I heard Brandon Heath playing on someones phone. I was like, what the heck!! Then I realized it was some ladies phone in the laundromat and I just though that was so random! And then Elder Goates was like you should go talk to her and I was heck yeah I am! So then it turned into about a 40 minute long conversation about Brandon Heath the gospel and her life! SO cool! She said that she wants to come to church soon which would be so cool! :) I really hope that she does! The other Elders who are English would teach her and her family if they become interested but I am so glad that I love christian music because if I didn't I wouldn't have been able to have that experience! It was so cool! I loved it! It is cool how the Lord puts these awesome experiences in your life to lift your spirits! I don't know if she will be interested to learn more at all but I got to plant the seed of faith and hope within her and I hope she felt something different as I testified to her about the church. I love you all so very much! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!!!

Love, Elder Brandon Lee Waidmann

"Time is precious here"

Well hello there everyone!!!

Life is good here in New York! What is crazy is that it is dumping rain out here!! Like what the heck!! It is June 10th for crying out loud!! Haha it is great though because I love the rain so much! The missionaries here aren't a big fan of the rain because it rains so much but hey! I love it! So that is the update on the weather I guess!

Ok so life here in the mission is great! I am loving New York and trying to enjoy every day that I have here because the more I think about it the more time is precious here because there is only 2 years that I have to dedicate service to the Lord! So this past week has been really good! It has gone by fast but slow at the same time! Kinda interesting! But it has been really good! :) So on Wednesday I went on an exchange with one of my Zone Leaders Elder Eggleston and that was so much fun! I go to go to Staten Island for the day and it was incredible! And I just loved it! I got to drive for the first time and that was so cool! I drove to Staten Island for our exchange because Elder Eggleston was making a phone call and so that was sweet! It was kinda weird driving after not driving for a few months but it was sweet! The day was awesome with him! I had the incredible opportunity to do some service for Hurricane Sandy clean up and that was just so awesome! I loved it! I just love being able to do service! It makes me so happy and oh man it was just so great! That day was a lot of fun! And man! Staten Island has got some sweet real estate there!!! Holy cow! It is crazy! These people are LOADED!!!! Haha so it was a good day with him and this week was pretty good!


The Staten Island Spanish missionaries are having an activity called a restoration concert and it is a lot of songs and a narration between them focused around the restoration, and Hermana Pagan one of the missionaries asked me to sing with her for it and i was like uuuuhhhhhhhhh.....if you really need me to! Because I really don't think that I am that good of a singer! And it is true! But anyway she wanted me to sing with her so we practiced for it on Saturday and oh man it was great! She sings so good!! And we are singing Yo Se Que Vive Mi Senor, which in English is I know that my redeemer lives! Boom! One of my favorites! So that is cool! And what is great is that she just has an incredible voice so I just like letting her kinda drown me out haha :) So what was so cool about that is that we got to practice with a Sister in the Midwood ward area who just so happens to be Sister Blosil. And by Sister Blosil I mean Jenn Blosil and if you don't know who that is yet go to the EFY CD in 2011 and listen to the song "Take it Home" yep that is her! MY GOODNESS!!! MIND BLOWN!!! She is so incredibly talented it is just insane! It was so cool to here her sing and play the piano! Just crazy! I have always loved her music and her voice and then bam! I get to meet her and she is a missionary here! Like what the heck! Crazyness! So that was so much fun!

Ok so yesterday church was great as always! I love it! And a guy from another ward who went to his mission in Brazil and only speaks English and Portuguese  (uh not sure if that is spelled right haha) came to our ward and spoke in Spanish and it was so good! He talked about inviting others! And seriously that is what the purpose of missionary work is! All we can do is invite! we aren't here to force people to accept the truth! We are only here to invite them to add to the truths that they already know! And ultimately we are inviting them to receive happiness! It is so cool and I love that! Because this is a message of joy and happiness! I love that about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It is so simple but when we do all that we can to live it and love it! We are happy and we get to share that joy with others! It is just wonderful! The love of the Savior is an incredible thing and I am so grateful for Him and our Heavenly Father! I love you all so much! Please keep praying for the people of New York to be humble and willing to receive this wonderful Gospel we have. Most importantly invite others to know! You never know until you ask! :)

Love,

Elder Brandon Lee Waidmann