14 March 2011

Thanks for the emails. It sounds like everyone is doing great.

Hey Brad, I ran into Juan Pablo Rodriguez yesterday in stake conference. He remembered you. You were the assistant when he go to the mission. He’s from Montevideo. And interestingly enough, the elder I trained is in his ward. He got home 2 months ago. Weird, I’m now where you were when I entered the mission. Holy cow.

At stake conference I also ran into my trainer. That was weird. He actually lives in my area, but he goes to a different ward. Weird. I ask myself why the Lord put him in my life in the very beginning of my mission and now. There’s a good reason and when I find out I’ll let you know.

Stake conference was cool. A newly called mission president spoke, our mission president spoke, the temple president spoke, the stake president spoke, 3 returned missionaries spoke. It was pretty good. Unfortunately, we didn’t have investigators for the third week in a row. We’re finding families, but it’s tough to get them to church. Looking back, it’s incredible how many families we are teaching now. And all of them were found thanks to following the Spirit.

It’s interesting that as my companion and I read the Book of Mormon, searching for the word “heart” we feel ourselves changing. We are more sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit. And we’re only half way through Alma. President da Silva times it perfectly so that we’ll be finishing just in time for general conference, which would be a great moment to have a soft heart. It’s cool to be able to have a 6 week preparation for general conference. I know it will be an amazing experience.

We have had a lot of success recently in our work with less actives, though. We’ve gotten more less actives to church in this area than investigators, which is not normal. I feel like we’re the bishop’s special forces. We go in, find their problem, share a scripture and help them feel the Spirit, and then get out. It’s interesting. We are able to do in one visit what the home teacher should be doing and accomplishing in months. I guess the Lord knows we don’t have months so he makes us more effective. It will be interesting to see if I will be able to help in the same way when I’m not a full-time missionary.

But yeah, I’m doing great. We’re preparing our area for next transfer – one week from tomorrow. We could be staying together; it would be my companion’s 4th transfer here. We’ll see.

Thanks for all the prayers and support. I love you all. Elder Whitaker