14 February 2011

Thanks for the emails.  It sounds like everyone is doing well.  Hey, Megan, Happy Birthday on Sunday.  We’ll try to get one investigator in church for each year you’ve graced the planet with your presence.  And while doing so we’d probably hit a record of some type.  I hope that doesn’t make you feel old.  Enjoy it.

So, I like my new area.  It’s very different from what I’m used to.  We live in a 13 story apartment building.  We’re on the 4^th floor.  There’s an elevator that works.  And it’s a lot more modern than other elevators I’ve seen here.

Something cool about this area is that the temple is really close.  There is a couple missionary that work in the temple that are assigned to attend church in our ward.  They are from Utah and have been here for 6 months.  They don’t speak much Spanish out of the temple vocabulary.  When they aren’t working in the temple they are free to accompany us in lessons.  It was really cool to hear their testimonies in very basic Spanish and translate what the people wanted to tell them.  Working 5 days a week in the temple gives them a special spirit and an increased capacity to love the people.

So we got to do an interchange with the office elders last week.  That was cool.  You usually do those for 24 hours, but the office elders are working in the office from 10 am to 4 pm, so we started the interchange at 4.  I got to work with our district leader who is the mission’s financial guy.  That was cool.

I really get along with Elder Salisbury.  He’s from Kaysville, Utah.  He has one transfer less than I do.  This is his third transfer as a zone leader.  It’s interesting to hear that he has been through a lot of the same experiences as me during his mission.  He’s just my second American companion and we were able to set some goals to take advantage of that.  The first time I had an American companion, it was my 6^th transfer.  After 5 transfer of Latinos, we almost never spoke in Spanish and I saw how it affected my ability to speak.  To avoid that problem now, we set a goal to always speak in Spanish together.  It’s really cool, and not even that hard to do.

It looks like we will have 2 baptisms not this Saturday but the next one.  And we’re looking for more people to baptize.  We’re working a lot with the members and asking referrals from anything that moves.  It’s an emphasis we got from Elder Arnold of the 70.

I’m kind of running out of things to say.  I want you all to know that I love you a lot.  Dad, I ordered your scripture covers, fyi.  Thanks for the letters and support.

Love, Elder Whitaker