31 January 2011

Hey, thanks for all the emails. Mom asked if there is Scouting in Uruguay, no.

This week I found a bottle of mapleine in our kitchen, and I took advantage of an opportunity to try out my Dutch baby recipe. It didn’t work. I didn’t look anything like what it should. Why? Did you send me the wrong recipe?

I realized this week that I have a receding hairline still. Sorry Weston. Prayers would be appreciated.

Today I realized that I was baptized 13 years ago. In South America it’s something that everyone remembers – the date of their baptism. But in the USA I don’t think people really care. So, 13 years, long time. And this morning I had a really interesting study. I studied the next talk of the conference Ensign. It was by Elder Perry on the Aaronic Priesthood. It really called my attention how important that priesthood is. He referred to it at one point as the Holy Priesthood of Aaron. Interesting. I loved the story that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery didn’t ask the Lord about baptisms until they got to 3 Nephi in the translation, where Jesus Christ himself teaches the doctrine of baptism. And once they asked, the Lord reveals the truth. It’s also very interesting the quote at the end from Ezra Taft Benson. He describes what he wants in a young man and makes a promise about what the Lord can do with that man. I’m sure Mom will paste it in for all of you to see. It’s interesting to see how I was able to fit all those characteristics. Thanks Mom and Dad.

President Ezra Taft Benson once said: “Give me a young man who has kept himself morally clean and has faithfully attended his Church meetings. Give me a young man who has magnified his priesthood and has earned the Duty to God Award and is an Eagle Scout. Give me a young man who is a seminary graduate and has a burning testimony of the Book of Mormon. Give me such a young man, and I will give you a young man who can perform miracles for the Lord in the mission field and throughout his life” (“To the ‘Youth of the Noble Birthright,’” Ensign, May 1986, 45).

So this week we don’t have a baptism in our area, but we are planning a cool district activity about missionary work for the members. We invited President da Silva, but he can’t come because that day the area president is visiting. So his counselor will be there. I’m excited. We prepared a PowerPoint slide show and presentation, then we’re going to split all the members into groups and they will practice sharing the gospel with their neighbors in workshops directed by the missionaries of the zone. Then we’ll get back together and the district president and then the counselor to the mission president will speak. I’ll tell you how it all goes tomorrow.

We had a good miracle this week at church. We had 4 investigators, a mom and her two kids and a recent convert’s brother-in-law. Our biggest challenge now is all of our investigators have one attendance, so we’re at least two weeks away from more baptisms. We’ll see what happens. And we’ll see if I’ll even be here to see them. Transfers are next week.

Anything else? I don’t think so. Sorry if this letter was on the boring side. I wasn’t too entertained writing it. I hope it isn’t a chore to read it.

I love you all. Thanks for everything.

Elder Whitaker

24 January 2011

Wow, where do I start? Last week was really good. Mom asked last week about how a Uruguayan baptismal service is. It’s pretty much the same as one in America, but during the changing time 99 percent of the time we put in movies. It’s easier, quicker, takes less planning, and can invite the Spirit just as well as other things. Invite is the wrong word, maintain the Spirit.
Our baptism was awesome, but we had a good amount of adversity. Agustin felt sick Saturday morning. He was having trouble breathing. We went and gave him a blessing. It was incredible. My testimony in the power of the priesthood was increased a lot. We gave him the blessing and stayed a shared a scripture and when we left he was perfect. Satan can do a lot, but he cannot win. The motorcycle also broke so they couldn’t get to the church. A member went to pick them up. They got there late, but he got baptized. It’s interesting to see adversity when someone is trying to do something so good and necessary. It led my comp and I to an interesting discussion on the difference between trials and adversity. Is there a good talk defining those two things? We decided that adversity comes from Satan and by using our agency and becoming agents we can overcome all adversity, but trials come from another source. I’m not sure yet if it’s God or others use of agency, but to overcome a trial you must persevere. Help on the subject would be nice.

So, I had a great birthday. I made brownies. Elder Vargas’ example two transfers ago helped me to have the best birthday ever. He didn’t tell anyone it was his birthday. I knew but I didn’t tell anyone because for me it’s not a big deal. I asked if he wanted me to tell everyone, but he was indifferent. I think that as a missionary when they know it’s your birthday it shifts the focus from Christ to you. On my birthday I got cards and emails from the family. Thanks. My mission president called to wish me a happy birthday. And when President called at 9:30 PM my companion realized it was my birthday and wished me a happy birthday and gave me a huge hug and asked me why I didn’t say anything all day. I explained why. It was really special. No one else knew. I’m sure if I would have told people I would have gotten my fair share of cake, but this was better. The hug my comp gave me was really interesting. I felt the Spirit so much. It was like all the birthday wishes packed into one. I love my companion. It’s been a huge blessing to be able to work with him these past three months.

Oh, Mom, thanks for making sure I learned the hymn “Rock of Ages.” I had to lead the music in sacrament meeting Sunday. That isn’t a song we sing a lot and we were a capella. It could have been weird.

And the other maybe miracle I want to tell you about was one of our last contacts on Sunday night. We knocked a door and an old Catholic lady opened her curtain half way. There’s only so much you can do in that situation. I told her we were here to baptize either her or someone she knew. Nothing. Thanks for the contact. But as we turned around we found a man sitting in his car waiting for someone. He basically contacted us. “You’re here to baptize people?” he asked. Yep. We didn’t have time so we gave him a pamphlet and we’ll visit him on Tuesday. It’s too early to know. It could have been nothing, or it might be another baptism.

Love you lots,
Elder Whitaker

17 January 2011

This was a good week. We had a baptism last Saturday, and we have another one this week. It was a simple miracle. We were doing our weekly planning on Friday. We were talking about our baptism for the next day and thinking who could be baptized the next Saturday. The revelation came that Agustin, the son of Alicia, who already got baptized, would be ready. It was interesting to watch the Lord provide a baptism. It was so easy, but it came because we’re doing all we know how to be the best missionaries. [picture of Alicia's baptism]Last week we also had interviews with President da Silva. They were really special. President da Silva is a very spiritual man. He based our interviews off of a couple of questions. He told us to imagine that the interview was between him and our mothers. He asked us, “How would your mom describe you as a missionary? What type of missionary does your mom think you are?” The other thing he asked us was what question would your mom have for President da Silva? It was an interesting experience. My first two ideas for the second question were interesting because as I analyzed them, I realized that they were questions I had and I don’t think Mom would have asked them. It was really cool.

And I talked to this brother who served in Resistencia two years ago and he’s told me some interesting stuff Brad. I’m excited to see if it went similar for you. I thought before that our missions would have been very similar, but I’m pretty sure Resistencia was a lot tougher. This guy, Brother Blanco was a branch president, too. In our mission there are two branch presidents and they are couple missionaries.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I haven’t read the letters yet, but I’ll tell you how my birthday went next week.

Thanks for everything. Love you lots.

Elder Whitaker

10 January 2011

That’s cool that the sisters and the ward mission leader gave talks this week. I remember thinking as a youth that the ward mission leader wasn’t an important calling. I was very wrong. A ward mission leader that magnifies his calling is an incredible blessing. For me now it has become almost the most important calling. It’s also cool being a zone leader because we get to work with the high council member assigned to missionary work. It’s like a stake mission leader. Yesterday with our stake mission leader we planned an activity for later in this month. I’m excited for that. It will be the centro de capacitacion de miembros – translation, member training center. We’ll see how that goes. One never-ending trial in Uruguay is getting members to come to activities.

Something interesting happened this week. I was talking to an elder that just arrived in our zone. He’s in his third transfer. I was briefly telling him my life story. Then he tells me he used to live in Tampa. “Which part?” I ask. “Brandon.” I almost fall over. He lived in the Bloomingdale Ward and moved when he was 7-ish. He knows the Ashleys, the Ellisons, the Gobles. His name is Elder Michael Eric McClellin. That was cool. He was best friends with David Ellison, and that made me wonder if he’s on a mission right now as well. Wow.

So we had a huge miracle this week in church. Our retention was 8 over 8. In the last 12 months in our branch 8 people were baptized. All 8 of them were in church yesterday. Zero less actives. That’s huge in any ward anywhere in the world. And we also had 3 investigators – Alicia who will be baptized this Saturday, her mom Gladys, and her son Agustine – 3 generations. The grandma and son will be baptized on the 29th. And that will make our baptism goal for January. That’s exciting.

Anything else? Thanks for the letters. Thanks for the birthday wishes. I’m excited to have the best birthday of my life, but I won’t be able to tell you about it until the week after, because my birthday won’t be over until after I do email next week.

I think that’s it. I love you all lots. Enjoy my letter.

Elder Whitaker