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