Car Loads of Fun In Eugene!

February 24, 2014

Hot dawg what a busy week ! First off Ryley happy birthday dude ! I

know I'm late but the first thing I thought on Friday morning was it’s

Ryley’s birthday.. Happy birthday. This past week has been quite

exciting. And I'll start with the highlight of my week... Experiencing

the Portland temple. The Portland temple is so beautiful to start. It

had rained about an hour prior to us arriving. And took us a good 2

hours to get down their. The van ride was exciting.. We stuffed 12

elders ( all of us bigger or taller in size ) in this Mormon assault

vehicle. We totaled 2500 lbs. in this poor van. The ride to the temple

was awesome. So green. So many trees and beautiful hills. It was a

pleasure to get lost in thought and admire Gods amazing creations. And

the rain just beautifies it all. When we arrived at the temple the sun

was out and shining on the glistening temple. Not to mention the guys

rappelling off it to clean this beautiful structure. Was cool to see

them with their power washers cleaning the spires and windows. The

temple has a really cool greenish tint. And the stone they used really

matches the pines on the grounds. Every flower is just marvelous, all

the pedals had flecks of rain spotted on them. The varieties of trees

had little droplets of water dripping onto the stained sidewalks. It

was indeed a beautiful sight. Me and my companion were hurrying

everywhere trying to take pictures of everything that stood out to us.

Which was basically everything. I felt like Instagram would of loved

me. I found myself thinking about all the photos my mom made me take

at all the temples I went to. And then I remembered the time I slipped

on the ice like a boss at the Logan temple. As we continued our trip

into the temple, the waiting room is so cool ! It's an inside garden

basically. Really captures your eyes attention and makes you want to

sit down and enjoy. As we checked in our cameras, got fitted, dressed,

and continued on with our endowment session I couldn't help but enjoy

that satisfaction that I always get when I'm in the temple. Such a

peaceful and reverent place. One that is set apart from the world. I

love temples. I love the feeling I get of how families can truly be

together forever and be sealed and bound on earth and into the

eternities. And temples always remind me of my family back at home.

Reminds me of my mommy who pushed me to go to temple even when I

didn't want to. Reminds me of my poppy who would constantly smile and

help me with anything during our session. And his kindness and example

to those around him. And then it always gets me excited to go with my

sister, and most likely her husband, when I get home.. Which then

leads me to think about my brothers and how I wish I were with them

playing lord of the rings on the tramp. And also attending the temple

when they are home. Ha. The temple has so much to offer us. It truly

is a house of God. It's where we can go with question or concern and

get those answers as we faithfully trust in The Lord. It's where we

can go and do missionary work for those who have passed on in this

life. I think of how lucky I am to be doing both missionary work on

earth and on the other side of the veil. The temple is where we can go

to get away from the stresses and problems of the world. And lose

ourselves in the beauty inside. It's where we can feel the spirit.

It's where the most joy is given to us. I wish I could go everyday.

And mom I'm so proud of your diligence and desire to go multiple times

a week. I'm SOOOOOOOOO jealous ! I'm also so proud. There are a

bazillion of other things you could do with your time.. But you choose

to devote it to your Heavenly Father. How amazing ! And dad I'm proud

of you for going once a week. Some people don't even go months or

years. What great examples I have. And that my family has. Ryley and

Connor I hope you get excited for that great day when you get to walk

into the house of The Lord. It is my testimony to everyone who cares

to read this far into my email that temples are truly ordained of God.

That they carry the unique ability to make FAMILIES forever. They can

truly bless our lives. And bless the lives of those who have moved on.

I love temples. And I hope everyone makes it a goal to go once every

two weeks. I'm jealous. Really I wish I could go more. But missionary

work for the people of Eugene, Oregon doesn't get done when were there.

Ok so now for the rest of the week. Extremely busy with service ! We

have officially been dubbed the moving company. Me and my companion

have moved 6 families in and our of their homes. All have flipped

pianos. So it gets rather intense. And this week we moved out 2

families. One was a non member. They are Lutheran. And old. And remind

me of my grandma when it comes to moving things. In fact it's

almost an exact same personality. Dad you understand right? And also

this week we cleaned up many branches and cut down a few trees. We

helped this elderly couple... The H's cut down a tree that had

fallen on their garage. Was pretty intense and reminded me of camping

and making log benches. And smelt really good. Sister H made us

shepards pie. My native food. And I ate a good 3 lbs of that. And then

after that we went and helped the G family take care of a tree,

which while doing that the Y family, also elderly and nonmembers were

walking by and we offered them help, ended up cutting down another

tree with much excitement. She tried to pay us even tho we insisted

that we do it for free so she agreed to take us to a Chinese buffet

restaurant. And this will lead us to give them our message. Even if

they are Buddhists. Anywho after our tree downing adventures we went

back to the grasses where we had Hawaiian haystacks (Another native

food to me). We showed them our homes and told them some stories then

went on back to missionary work. I guess the point of this story is

the food is back to normal ha ! :) also mommy my ear is much better.

Sister k just wants to be prepared with more drops if needed.

So take your time on it. I love you by the way. Did you know that?

Hehehe. Today is super cool. It's way foggy and were up on the top of

a hill/ mountain here at a members home doing laundry. I think today

we are going bowling as a zone. And we are doing splits with the

elders quorum tonight. Anywho I love y'all. I miss my home ward. Oh oh

oh.... I almost forgot... So really scary experience this week. I was

on an exchange with my DL and we were at my area tracting. We went to

this dudes house, as we stood at his door for like a minute he finally

came from around the side of the house... ( this story may be

disturbing to some parental guidance is advised. What follows will be

a play back from what happened on February 21 at approx 2 pm.)

👿(Devil face) what are you selling

👬 (two young men) (two young men)we're not selling anything sir.. But..

👿(Devil face) well you must be selling something or else you wouldn't be on my

doorstep! ( he then continues to pick up a garden hose..)

👬 (two young men)we're really..

👿(Devil face)what organization are you from? (Walking over to switch to turn on water)

👬 (two young men)the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

👿(Devil face)so your selling something then.. Religion.. Bunch of crap. (Edited)

👬 (two young men)um yeah I guess so..

👿(Devil face)do you know what I do to people who try to sell me crap? ( turns on

water ) (frightens missionaries)

👬 (two young men) (two young men)can we do anything for you ?

👿(Devil face)you can get off my property right now ! ( aiming hose at us)

👬 (two young men)=🙀(Scard cat) ok sure thing.. Have a great day..🙌🏃 ( us praising The Lord

and running)

So yea that was exciting haha :) and totally kidding about parental

guidance. I dunno how to spell disgression so it's guidance. Sorry

folks. Anywho love y'all.. Later !!

Rays of Sunshine

I had a friend point out to me that new missionaries seem to be more focused on the “natural man” type of things-often things dealing with our five senses. Then toward the end of their missions, you see that referred to less and less. The spiritual things take forefront in their emails home. This is evidence of Brayden's “Natural Man” lol! Take with a grain of salt….

If I only Had a GREEN Nose. - Read the book!

 Feb 17 2014 (typed on my iPad thus the strange spacing)

This has been quite the week. It's been depressing, sad, awesome, and

weird. It has rained the past week everyday at least 10 hours. Let's start off with the depressing and sad and than leave best for last... So this week has been very stressful. As you could imagine it is missionary work. We went to the doctors and he had no idea what was the matter with my ear. So he just told me to use the drops and surprisingly it worked. But what I'm fearful of is that it'll come

back again and again till the problem is figured out. My ear is fine now. I guess I will

just have to keep praying. For I know God answers prayers. The thing

that sucked was that we wasted all that time at the dr. So we never

got the chance to go shopping. But blessing in and of its self we had members

feed us every night of this week. Which leads me to my next point...

So this week I had 2 exchanges. Which is where you go out with a new

companion for 24 hours and learn new things. Tuesday night I went on exchange

Now I don't know if y'all know this but I am not a fan of fancy, high

class, tomatoe eatin, onion lickin, pepper spreadin, organic feelin,

oriental lookin, fish tastin foods. Also no gamey taste.. Ex: venison,

snake, chicken heart.. On and on. So this week in food was quite

interesting and I knew it would be when it started out with pizza that

was smothered in onions and tomatoes. Again not a huge fan but I

managed to gag down two pieces. Wednesday night I returned to my

normal companion and we went to the nice family. Where

we were fed gumbo. Which strangely was pretty good but had a weird

after taste. One I didn't really desire. The family was nice. In fact

all the families that feed us are nice, I just grew up on really basic

foods and it's hard to put my head around most of this strange stuff.

Thursday night we went to sister H's house. Judging by the last name

I figured it would be normal American food. Tacos, hamburgers, maybe

lasagna or spaghetti. Boy was I wrong. She was a tiny Japanese woman

and I knew by the smell I got in the door way that dinner was going to

be interesting. I than prayed to God and begged him to give me

strength to overcome this up coming obstacle. For I new what lied in

the room ahead would push me to a new fear factor. I tried to prolong

eatin.. Washed my hands for like 6 minutes. Pet the dog. Made short

conversation. I did everything I could so I didn't have to see what we

were eating till I was ready to eat so I didn't have to think about it

till it was goin in my mouth. We went in the kitchen and sittin on the

stove were these weird looking egg roll things. They are called

potstickers. (For the record… HE has had these. He just doesn’t pay attention to the names of food…) Thank heaven almighty when I asked what was inside and

the tiny Japanese lady explained that it was sausage.. For I knew that

my prayer had been answered. But I was way to confidant that I would

be able to eat this when.. To my surprise.. After I sat down.. She

brought me a huge bowl of seaweed tofu. My heart fell out of my body.

My mind started spinning in circles and I came up with a sudden.. "Is

that seaweed? Darn I'm allergic to seaweed! Thanks tho. " now I know

what your thinkin right now. " did a missionary just lie? " and the

answer is no. I was just saving my tasted buds from eternal damnation.

I lucked out this night. For the potstickers were pretty good. Back to

the timeline.. It was now Friday night. And I was staring at tacos.

Right in the face. I was so excited ! My native food ! It was

welcoming me and telling me how happy it was to see me. And I was

smiling ! (Also I was on an exchange With a ZL( zone leader for all

you rookies.)) but boy was I ever so wrong.. Little did I know that

they poisoned the meat with killer spices and mixes.  The cheese was

three weeks old. How did I know this because I am a cheese master!!!

I again gagged down the taco I could feel an internal combustion

explosion. I had a Kung Fu man in my tummy that was hitting and

kicking my stomach. I could hear him laughing as my stomach gurgled. I

had then contracted a disease known as the Hersey squirts. On Saturday

night we ate at home. We had cereal. Normal Brayden food. And I

mentally started to prepare myself for what lied ahead in the meal

schedule. The guy said we were havin venison burgers. Now peps don't

take my man card away.. And dad I know what you have been talking

about all these years.. But I did not like them at all. They made me

way sick. And my stomach was once again in WW3. So besides all the

interesting foods this week it was a little below average on the

happiness scale. We had 4 investigators drop us this week. And only 2

new investigators pick us up.  This week has been full of so much rain. It has almost rained

non stop. We tracted through this rain, rode our bikes through it,

gave lessons under porches in it. But something I have come to figure

out is that is symbolic. It might be pouring, and it might suck.

And you might get dropped by people, and you might slip in a puddle,

and it may seem like it will never give up, just like the rain, but

with all rain storms there is also the chance of some sun peaking

through the clouds every once in a while. We had a great lesson with a

young family who we got a return appointment for. We tracted this guys

house and also got a return appointment and he was full of excitement.

While I was on exchanges with the ZL, who is also very quite and

Shy, I managed to create a friendship with a tattoo artist.

This was the highlight of my week. This guy shared some amazing

testimony about the church. And he isn't even a member. His roommate came home during our lesson and we were able to talk to her. I was able to bear my testimony with both of them. The only thing I'm good at. And I had them both in tears and committing to changing their jobs around so that they could make it to

church. I was so impressed with this. They are both struggling to make

ends meet and yet they are willing to sacrifice what they need most

for church and religion.

I often look back at how I took advantage of this. How could I? What possessed my mind to believe that I could skip church when I wanted. To create illness so that I didn't have to go. And the answer is Satan. Who is doing all he can to capture you

in his trap. Do not let the adversary tempt you into not going to

church. Do not let him grab hold and drag you down. We can avoid him.

We can put up a shield! We make these shields by creating an

environment in which he cannot dwell a upon. We go to church. We pay

tithing. We have FAMILY prayer. FAMILY is the MOST IMPORTANT social

unit of all time. We must protect and save our family members from his

firm grasp, by centering our homes around the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Be an example to your family members. Encourage family prayer and

discussions about how the day has been. Lift up your fallen brother

who has fallen into the hands of the adversary. Save someone's eternal

salvation. Brothers and sisters reading this make sure your church

attendance is 100%! Home teaching is 100%. It makes a difference.

For all you know you could be saving that soul from the trap. It is my

testimony to you that church is the most important thing we could do

on Sundays. Partaking the sacrament and remembering our Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ. Learning new principles and doctrines of how we can defend our

home from the devil himself. I know church saved me. I know it blessed

my life. I know it can bless yours. The rains may come down but we can always

find the rays of light throughout our day. And we should always be

thankful for them. In the name of Jesus Christ amen :)!

We are going to the Portland temple on Wednesday!!  So pumped! Temple work is most important and I’m so jealous that you can go whenever you want. Love the pictures and WOW a four hour wait for baptisms!

We took first place in the ward shuffle board game. We had a “cruise” party on Valentines Day. We pretty much kicked some serious butt. Sister W is so amazing. Her and her husband have totally been looking after us! Say thanks to her. she sent those photos to you., oh and she makes an amazing burger, and he fixed my new bag that has torn apart.

Mommy, I love you so much ! The topic of family has come up quite a bit this last week and I have found myself crying for how much I miss y’all. Happy Birthday Ryley! I miss you bro!  Your gift is awesome and on it’s way! I bought it from a drug hippie!  This is going to be very awkward but is it possible that you send me some music. I know, I know this is the moment you have waited for. How lame of me.. But maybe some.. Steven sharp nelson, Paul cardall, dallyn bayles. and definitely music from the hobbit that is uplifting. please :) :) also question of the week is did Adam and Eve have belly buttons ??  (Bryaden insisted he didn’t want any of MY music when he left as HE would NEVER listen to it!)

Winter Storm!

February 10, 2014   Good Eye Mates, (try saying that and not sound Australian)

This week has definitely been a crazy one! Oregon was hit with a huge winter storm that hasn’t been seen in over 30 years. It shut down the whole town. It snowed almost 2 feet on Friday to Saturday and on Friday night it rained freezing rain, which covered all the new snow in almost 2 inches of ice. Ice on everything including cars and trucks. Trees were collapsing everywhere! My companion and I went out for a little walk to see if we could do some service on Saturday.  Missionary work was slow but service was high.  We were standing under a tree that started to crack. We moved and about 5 or so minutes went by and the whole thing came crashing down right in the middle of the road up to our house. Now everything is flooding because of all the melting snow. But it feels so fresh and renewed.

At the beginning of the week last, Monday’s Pday, we played ultimate Frisbee. I have found a new passion for that game. So fun. We played with all the elders in our zone. Everyone is way good at it. We played on a turf field by the campus. Got scrapped up pretty bad. Hurt the good ol’ knee; so worth it. Later on that night I found that my ear had begun the process of hurting again. I started to take my anti biotic that I had left over in hopes that it would help. It did but as the week has continued I have had to rely on priesthood blessing and prayers. I have a dr. appointment today. Hopefully it will just be nothing big.

Tomorrow we will get our iPads. President Y has asked our district to test them out. It should be a great tool. We will be on Facebook for an hour every day. Everything I post has to help others come unto Christ. Thursday nights we will have a Book of Mormon class that you can add yourself to from my page.

We didn’t really have any great missionary moments this week. The storm shut us down Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We had to stay inside and watch church movies. We did however find time to get outside and help people unstick their cars. or unstucked them. What ever that word is, the cars were stuck and we helped them get unstuck, if that makes sense. haha. I will say though we had a somewhat decent experience with a lady. She was very knowledgeable about the bible... so we went up to the door and it was my turn to knock and give the whole shabang thingy. So when she answered, y’all have to understand I’m new and totally suck at door approaches. I told her how God loves her and through the BOM and Jesus Christ’s gospel our families could be blessed. It sounds so much better in Email, but in real life it stunk and my comp had to save me. She then let us into the house where my companion rocked it and talked for like 15 minutes straight while I stood there dumb founded. He taught her that “technically, all of Christ's teachings are in the Bible, but the Book of Mormon is for the gathering of Israel and the Gentiles. It is to convince the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ and that his exact church is once again on the Earth today. Elder Tad R. Callister gave a great CES devotional on the topic of Christ's Church and used an analogy of a blue print on a house. He then compared the Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints to the Church that Christ organized. So we gave this lady a Book of Mormon. By the way she was an amazing lady, she had such a strong testimony of Christ and understanding of the Bible. Credit to her. It was tough to get her to listen to us. Many people hold the Bible as the benchmark for all religion, but the Bible has been translated and handled by so many people that it isn't in its perfect condition and has some simple and plain truths are left out, so that confusion can creep in. That is why there are so many different Christian sects on the Earth today. This is why the Book of Mormon is so important.” (Elder Mecham). So glad he can teach a learnin’ kid. I feel sooo rooookie. Anywho, I ended up giving her my testimony and inviting her to read the BOM. Hopefully she does. We will find out sometime this week. We also taught BOM class and it was great. I love teaching it and it has helped me figure out the most important thing in life...

My family, your family is the most important social unit of all time. I am so grateful that I can be with them forever as we follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must endure till the end. Which means STUDY and PRAY daily. As a family is strengthened by doing this. Even if its a prayer at the end of the day. WE are commanded to!! 3 Nephi 18:21. Read it!! I don’t care how busy you think you are there is always time for God. Pray to him. He wants to hear from you. It doesn’t have to be fancy or special, or when you are in a time of need, let him know how your day has been. Thank him for everything. I promise you that you will be blessed in your lives. I am learning this lesson too. For when I was in the non-missionary world I lacked the faith, and time to talk to my Heavenly Father daily, but now I see how important it is. Ask for his help and understand that he is always walking by your side. You will feel of his love and comfort and you will be a portal in which the Holy Ghost can reside. For all you out there struggling to get your kids to go to church or to say prayers or to read their scriptures, try harder. Don’t give up. Don’t quit trying. I can guarantee that if know what awaits us, you would try harder. Now I’m sorry for all the harshness. I want an eternal family and I want all of us to receive the blessings of eternal life. This gospel blesses families, and strengthens us and makes us one and whole. The family is the only people you have that are always on your side. They are always there to take care of you when you’re sick or inflicted. REMEMBER your purpose in this life and strive to stay on the path that leads to immortality and eternal life in Gods greatest kingdoms. I love my family and I miss them heck of bad. I miss my brother’s laugh and kindness when I’m having a hard day or hanging out with me. I miss my best friend and sister, Megan. I miss my daddy who teaches me the importance of being a man, responsibility and respect for others. I love you dad. And most of all I miss my MOMMY. Who’s love will carry me down through the ages. Who unconditionally takes care of her babies. Who teaches them right from wrong. Who nourishes her children with laughter and love, kindness, and understanding. I love you mommy and I miss you dearly. We all need to HOLD TO THE ROD! And ENDURE till the end. Don’t just grasp the rod. CLING to it. Grasp the gospel with both hands and endure in faith. Cry out repentance to the lord above and help your fellow neighbors, and family members. BE a missionary :)

Well that’s all I have to rant about. I love you all dearly. Later!! Elder Workman