30 May 2011

Thanks for the emails. This week was really good. Here’s a few photos – 3 of the baptism we had on Sunday - Agustin and his mom, unbaptized step-dad, brother, Elder Echegaray – Area Authority Seventy – and Elder Peña and ISilvia, her cousin baptizing her, the cousin’s wife and kids, Silvia’s unbaptized mom and sister and useveryone that went to the baptism minus Elder Peña and meAnd the last photo was last week when I was sick. I had a 39° Celsius fever, but I’m better. It happens.

So our baptism was really cool. It says somewhere in the missionary handbook of Preach My Gospel to always leave your area better than how it was when you got there. Our area is a lot better. We’ve been able to have 4 baptisms in 3 months. Last year they had like 6 and unfortunately few are still active. Agustin who got baptized yesterday has a great musical talent. The branch president gave him a green hymn book last Sunday. In one week he learned at leave 5 hymns – 3 for sacrament meeting and 2 for his baptism. You could really perceive the difference in the meetings. It’s a big deal not having a brand pianist for years and then getting one. I told him how Mom was the Primary pianist at 12 years old. He’s 11.

It was really cool to have an area authority seventy at the baptism. After the welcoming into the branch he was given a little bit of time to speak. It was really spiritual. You can feel the authority of his calling, even though he didn’t say anything that I haven’t heard before. It really called my attention that he had the expectation that Silvia and Agustin will always be faithful until the end. Unfortunately, not everyone has such hope in people.

I can’t think of anything else to say. I’m still working hard and trying to end on a baptism. It’ll be tough but it can happen.

I love you all so much. Thanks for the support and prayers.

Elder Whitaker

23 May 2011

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

First off, Dave asked a question about what I eat here. The members take care of us very well and provide lunch. It depends on your area and how many active members there are for the frequency of the lunches. I've had areas where we have lunch every day. Currently we fend for ourselves 2 or 3 times a week. They serve us pasta with tomatoes and meat sauce, fideo con tuco, or fried meat, milanesas, with rice. Sometimes they do grilled meat, asado, with rice. Every now and then we get the Uruguayan shepherd's pie, pastel de carne. And in the winter we get a lot of stew called guiso. It's rice and/or pasta with meat and vegetables, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions . . . really good. There's a lot of variety and it's good. We eat enough at lunch to get us through till night, and even then usually I don't eat anything, or very little at night and just wait for breakfast. And for breakfast I buy a 3 kilo bag of frosted flakes and that keeps me going. I've never eaten so much cereal in my life.

So this Sunday was good for us. We're going to have 2 baptisms next Sunday. There's a cool story for why we're doing them Sunday. Their names are Silvia and Agustin. They're in no way related. Silvia, 15, is the cousin of a member, Javier. Javier just got married and his wife got baptized when we got here. We finally taught Silvia everything and now she's getting baptized. The second person is Agustin, 11 years old. His mom was more or less inactive, due to the fact that she isn't married, and her partner is not divorced yet. Because of this Agustin was never baptized. Agustin and his mom asked an old family friend to baptize him. This family friend is Elder Echagaray and he's an Area Authority Seventy. They coordinated with him, then called President de Silva, and President da Silva called us telling us to do everything in our power to make it so this elder could baptize Agustin. Area Authority Seventies are busy people; Sunday at 5 is when he can do it. Cool. I've never had a Seventy come to a baptism before. I'm way excited.

Thanks for all the support and prayers. Don't worry about me. I feel great. I'm working in the same intensity that I've worked my whole mission. We're still running. We're trying to finish in white.

Love, Elder Whitaker

15 May 2011

Thanks for the emails. It sounds like everyone is doing well. Wow, this keyboard is great – all the letters are still printed on all the keys and none of them stick after using them!

This Sunday we had stake conference. It’s weird that we’re in May and I’ve already attended two stake conferences. Our ward mission leader was in charge of the choir. So to help him out we practiced one or two times after church with him. It was originally a branch choir, but it turned out to be a stake choir. We sand “I’ll Go where You want Me to Go” and “The Day Dawn is Breaking.” And thanks to that I got to sit next to President da Silva. He was surprised to see us up there. It was cool to sit on the stand. It’s a lot more quiet up top. I didn’t hear any disruption at all. I can see how it would be easier to feel the inspiration as a speaker to say what the Lord would want said. President da Silva spoke and the counselor to the temple president – Brother Kenney who served here at the same time as Grandpa. He finishes his mission in one week. They talked a lot about missionary work. That was cool. A recently returned sister from the stake gave her testimony. Just by listening I could tell she was a really good missionary. That was confirmed when President da Silva said he would have liked her in his mission. I know he doesn’t say that about everyone. I think that could be one of the most powerful compliments one could receive.

So last week we got an interesting email forwarded to us from the area presidency. In the email it said to print out the attachment and treat it as scripture. It was a 12-week study schedule to train new missionaries. It allows us an extra hour of companion studies every day except P-day and the day we do our weekly planning. It’s focused on the eight new focuses we have. It’s been cool following a new study plan. I’m wondering if this is something that came from Elder Arnold and maybe if it works it’ll be used worldwide. It’s a trainer and his new companion study program, but right now the whole mission is doing it. Cool.

And last night as we studied a bit I learned something cool. In John 14:26 it talks about how the Holy Ghost brings all things to our remembrance. That made me think of the sacrament prayers that say if you remember Christ you can always have the spirit. It becomes either an upward spiral or a downward spiral. If I remember Christ, the Holy Ghost helps me remember him more and better and that gets me the Holy Ghost more which helps me be more purified. But it works the same in reverse. Cool.

I think that’s it. Thanks for the prayers and letters. I love you all lots.

Elder Whitaker

9 May 2011

Thanks for the emails. It was nice to call home and talk with Mom and Dad and Steven and Michelle.

A few comments from last week’s emails – Dave, freshman year at BYU I got called to be secretary in my Elder’s quorum by a president I had never met. He never met me either. It was a miscommunication between the president and the high council member and some other things that I don’t remember. But as we started working together we realized it was what the Lord had in mind. Cool.

Brad, some advice for your brother-in-law as he is about to be set apart as a full-time missionary – Mom took notes of my setting apart and typed them up for me. It was something so small that I have been eternally grateful for. No missionary that I’ve talked to remembers really well their setting apart. I remember a lot thanks to Mom. I would recommend recording it if there isn’t any instruction manual saying you can’t. He’ll love you for that.

This week church was great. The three people, youngsters actually, that should be getting baptized May 28th came to church. The secret to their success is this: one is the son of a less-active member, one is the niece of our ward mission leader, and the other is a cousin of a recently activated member. Awesome.

But it wasn’t all roses this week. President Brigham Young made a wonderful quote once about whenever the saints start to build another temple the bells of hell begin to ring. President Young said, “Let them ring.” We’ve been hearing those bells all week.

One of our investigator’s suddenly fell sick and passed away. His name was Miguel; he was the one that got married the week after we got here. Unfortunately, he didn’t progress as he should have. It’s really sad. It was cool to see the branch work together to help this family. Natalia is now a widow with two young daughters.

Apart from that almost all of our lessons failed us and we lost a few more investigators.

Oh Megan, I read a talk last week and thought of you – Elder Perry’s “Mothers Teaching Children in the Home.” It was one of the past few conferences. My advice would be to teach your class as if they were Wyatt. Or teach your class to teach you how to teach Wyatt. It was a really good talk. Or you could practice your lessons teaching Wyatt. Oh, and I liked the photos. Thanks.

Oh, and Mom, remember Elder Thornton who was in my area before I got here and you saw his blog? I called him last night to tell him about Miguel. He said he’s been updated by his dad by my blog. Cool. So here’s a shout out to Brother Thornton. Elder Thornton is a great elder.

I love you all. Thanks for the support.

Elder Whitaker

2 May 2011

Thanks for all the emails. It’s good to hear that everything is going well. So last night came the transfer calls. It was interesting being at the bottom of the phone call chain instead of being at the top. We’re both staying together. Of the ten companionships in our zone all of them but two had transfers.

So this Sunday was death. It rained big time, and to make things better it was Labor Day I guess – the one day in the year that the bus system is completely turned off. I read an interesting quote about hope this morning, but being realistic yesterday we didn’t have much hope for anyone coming. We had 13 at church; sacrament meeting ended when everyone bore their testimonies. It was cool though.

We’re still excited. We’re hoping to have three baptisms next month. From what I have heard, two people from my last area got baptized last transfer.

What other cool miracles happened last week? We’re seeing a lot of miracles. We invited our Elder’s Quorum President to a couple of lessons and it turned out the investigator we were teaching was an old co-worker of his. That was unexpected.

Thanks for the pictures. It looks like everyone is doing well. I think that’s it for now. I love you all.

Elder Whitaker