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

28 December 2010

Uruguay Montevideo missionaries

Floridá zone

This week went really well. I really enjoyed Christmas [see picture above]. I’m also in the Montevideo bus terminal because today was transfers. My companion and I are staying together – few changes in our zone.

On the 24th we had a cool miracle. We knocked on a door and a lady let us in. Her husband is blind and she had a serious bandage on her foot. We watched Mormon Messages about Christmas. It was really cool. She said the God sent us there. That was cool.

On Christmas Day Uruguay is dead from a late night and fireworks and alcohol, so we took advantage to do our weekly planning. Then we went to eat lunch with our branch president, and then we planned more. We also cleaned out our cell phone. Zone leaders and sisters have cell phones in our mission. Other elders have met people and put them [their information] in the phone. So, we called a boatload of people and saw if they wanted to be baptized and when they used their agency incorrectly we wished them a Merry Christmas.

I loved the phone call. It made me feel really good. Thanks for being the best family ever.

Love you lots,

Elder Whitaker

6 December 2010

This week was really good. Thanks for all the letters. I got a lot of them and I’ll print them out to have time to write you all.

We had a baptism on Saturday. And like you probably know, there is always a bunch of opposition when someone wants to get baptized. We got to the church 3 hours ahead of time to fill the font. Turns out the font was full, from our last baptism. Gross. We had to empty it and then fill it up. We brought a DVD player and a DVD to watch after the ordinance, but there was only one plug, so we prepared a backup plan with the VHS built into the TV. Edgardo, who was getting baptized, couldn’t find a taxi. So instead of getting to the church 30 minutes early, it was like 4 minutes early. Sonia, Edgardo’s wife, has a cell phone out of commission. And at 15 till, there was one member. It was cool, and not even that stressful, really, because it all got fixed in time and the baptism went really smoothly. I performed the baptism. Edgardo is like 65 years old. This week he got married to Sonia after being together for 5 years. Sonia is a member since her youth.

Yesterday we had a meeting with the district president. That was cool. What called most to my attention was the spirit we felt together. The spirit that accompanies a district president is different. What was even more interesting was the zone leader council we had this week with Elder Arnold of the Seventy. He said the same thing. He felt a different spirit as he met with 22 zone leaders and the assistants. I thought, “What is he feeling and how is he feeling it?” I felt the spirit he brought but nothing due to the fact that I was there. It was interesting, something to ponder.

But I think that’s all I’ve got. I love you lots. I hope you all enjoy this Christmas season. We’re working on having a white Christmas. We’re working on baptizing Alicia on Christmas, the only saving ordinance you can perform on Christmas because the temples are closed on Christmas. You could pray for that.

I know the church is true. I know Christ lives. What a glorious blessing it is to represent Jesus Christ.

Love, Elder Whitaker

29 November 2010

Thanks for all the letters. It sounds like everyone is doing well. This spacebar is wacked. Bear with me. [The spacing is now edited correctly, but it was odd.]

I’m glad Thanksgiving went well. My Thanksgiving was a regular day. We did order pizza at the end of the day to celebrate. It was okay.

Thanks for the brownie recipe Mom. The first time I burnt the bottom; the second time it worked perfectly. The biggest difference is the oven I have does in 50 minutes what the regular oven should do in 25. My companion was a fan of them. And the good part was the ingredients for the brownies are ingredients we often have in our house.

So the other day I bought toothpaste. I bought discount toothpaste to save money. Don’t ever make that mistake. Maybe it’s okay at Walmart, but in Uruguay, don’t do it. It was half the price of Colgate and double the size. Oh well.

That reminds me, how is the family newsletter doing?

So this Thursday, we have our zone leader council in Montevideo. All the zone leaders go and the assistants and President and his wife, but this time it will be even more special because the area president, Elder Arnold, will be there. I’m excited.

But I’m doing very well. Thanks for everything. I love you all.

Elder Whitaker

23 November 2010

Thanks for the pictures of Steven’s eagle project. What does it mean when I don’t recognize anyone in the pictures? I guess I’m getting old. I was planning on sending you some pictures but the USB port is too skinny to let my USB enter. Next time I’ll bring the little cable that eliminates that problem.

Yesterday we went to Montevideo for a leadership training meeting. That was way cool. I learned a lot. From our zone we brought 6 of our 12 missionaries – 2 zone leaders, 2 district leaders, and 2 future leaders. The meeting was composed of groups like this from every zone from half the mission. They had to do this meeting twice. It was cool. The spirit was really strong and we focused on having a hunger to baptize. When the whole mission gets that hunger, the Lord will be able to provide to feed the hunger. This hunger also pushes everyone to live the way you have to to deserve the blessings of baptizing someone.

Another thing I’m trying to do is focus on investigators in my studies. It is selfish to study something I want to study. It shows charity if I study for others. And there are promises made by leaders that if you study for others you’ll learn more than you could studying for yourself. I saw that this week. I wanted to study baptism, our first covenant, from Preach My Gospel, to help an investigator. It was incredible. This section has like 7 paragraphs. In the first 3 it mentions baptism 1 time. Why? To understand baptism you have to know what an ordinance is and a covenant. Duh. Why didn’t I ever notice that? The last 4 paragraphs mention baptism like 17 times, and then ties it all into the sacrament. It was incredible.

Thanks for letting me know your areas in the mission, Dad. It impressed my companion that you were all over the country. Elder Llamín is from the part of Santiago called Florida. Ironic enough, right? I’m from Florida and we’re serving in Floridá.

I read something about Christmas gifts. It sounds good. We’ll see if I can do something about getting a Christmas gift to someone. I needed to be on that yesterday. On another Christmas note, who will be home for Christmas? Who will get the great gift of talking to me?

I think that’s it. I’m doing really well. I’m happy and excited to work and serve. Yesterday we learned about the secrets of missionary work – work and obey - secrets that aren’t secrets that Brad shared with me a long time ago.

I love you lots. Thanks for the emails.

Elder Whitaker

15 November 2010

Today is transfer day. My companion, Elder Vargas, is going home and my new companion is Elder Llamin, accented i. He’s from Chile. I’m excited. He’s relatively young in the mission and for a zone leader young too. He almost has 9 months. I’m really excited to work with him. And, Dad, it would be cool if you could send me a list of all the areas where you served in Chile. That would be cool because there are a lot of Chilenos and my branch’s branch president served in Chile.

We went to the temple this week. That was awesome. It was tough, though. Because I can’t go frequently, I tried to focus on too many things. It’s hard to focus on keeping covenants when you can’t remember them all. But I’m a lot better now. I learned a lot.

We had a baptism last week. Jennifer got baptized. She’s married to a member that recently re-activated himself. It’s really cool to see the way the gospel changed this family.

Thanks for the brownie recipe, Mom. Now I have to go about getting myself a pan. We used to not have an oven, so there would be no need for oven-safe dishes.

And, Dad, I know how you feel. I’m a little overwhelmed also. It wasn’t that hard being a zone leader when my companion had been a zone leader for like 10 months. Now I have to train a zone leader. I’m also the oldest missionary in my zone. Lucky for me my zone is the smallest zone there is, or at least tied for smallest. There are six companionships.

Thanks for everything. I love you all lots. Thanks for the prayers and emails.

Love, Elder Whitaker

8 November 2010

Wow. It seems like everyone is doing well. Thanks for praying that we could find new investigators. We really saw miracles in our area. We wanted two per day, but we set another goal to get 20 “news” in the week. The PMG (Preach My Gospel) definition of a “new” is to teach a lesson and have a return appointment. We got our 20 new on Sunday at 7 PM, just in time. We also saw a great miracle in two new investigators, an unmarried couple, Domingo and Mariana. We found them on Friday, visited them Saturday and invited them to be baptized. On Sunday we stopped by their house and they went to church. It was a huge miracle. If we can find one family like this, why can’t we find ten families like this in a week? I learn that we set our own limits and our attitude has a lot to do with everything.

I saw another miracle in my old area. They had two baptisms this week, a couple got married and baptized. And my old area has four more this week. I really can’t believe the blessings this branch is receiving. I don’t know how or why it’s happening. Weird, eh?

This is my companion’s last full week as a full-time missionary. He’s a great example to me because looking from the outside in you’d never guess that he was almost done. He is working until the end, and he’s teaching me a lot.

We’re going to the temple on Wednesday. I’m super excited about that.

I think that’s it for now. Oh yeah, we’re going to have a baptism this week. Jennifer is getting baptized. I’ll tell you how that goes next week.

Love, Elder Whitaker

1 November 2010

I’m glad it seems like everyone is doing fine. I hope Halloween went well. Cody asked if I had an orange tie. Nope. Halloween is interesting here. At like 3 PM we started seeing kids go out, only a few went out with parents. The costumes consist of masks and witches, little creativity. It was hard to knock doors, though, because the kids were stealing our targets.

Mom said something about Steven’s eagle project and having good examples. It struck me because in my talk yesterday, I spoke a bit about examples. A ward member got his mission call this week and went to the pulpit and spoke a bit. He said he had to be an example to his younger siblings. Then I spoke about the power of older brothers. I am where I am because of that power. Many people don’t fully understand that power. Then I spoke about my older brother Jesus Christ. It was really powerful to me. Then I spoke about the priesthood and how exercising the priesthood in my life has helped me in specific experiences. I chose that topic because our recent covert and an investigator’s husband need to be getting the priesthood shortly. I was happy with how it went because I didn’t have much time to plan either. Saturday I get the message, “And oh yeah, you have to give a talk,” but I didn’t know if it was a joke or an assignment. I remembered Sunday morning, pondered a bit in preparation, and after the sacrament my branch president announced my talk. Fun.

The miracle of this week is being able to be a zone leader over my old area and see the heavens open and change that entire area. Before I got to that branch they had two baptisms in the year. When I left they had three. One month later they have seven, and their goal for this next month is five. Three people got baptized last Saturday. One was a reference I got. Another was a contact on a P-day. The other was a street contact. I can’t believe the miracles. It was sad not being at the baptism, but at least I have the photos.

If you could pray for something specifically for me, those prayers would help us a lot. Our goal this week as a zone is to find two new investigators every day. We’re looking for the people that are prepared to be baptized now.

Thanks for everything. I love you lots. Have fun working, Dad.

Elder Whitaker

25 October 2010

Last week I got a few questions. Michelle asked me if I ever go to Mutual to talk about missionary work and asked how Mutual is in South America. I never got invited to speak about anything. We are always invited to play soccer, but it’s kind of against the rules and a VERY ineffective use of the time we have here. From what I see, Mutual is a quick spiritual lesson and the boys play soccer and the girls do arts and crafts.

Cody asked me if I have played the piano. One time I did, for an activity. I can play Nearer My God to Thee, from the regular green hymn book. I was scared and nervous and it wasn’t done that well, but it’s a step up, right?

David sent me a good scripture about being men from 2 Nephi 1:21. The day before my comp pointed that scripture out. I had that marked. We also found a Mormon Message by Elder Christofferson about being men. And ironically, all this helped us resolve a problem in a companionship this week. It was cool.

Dad asked if my companion is a zone leader too. Yes, he is. He’s training me.

I found an interesting scripture this week: 4 Nephi 1:27. It talks about the state of apostasy of the Nephites 200 years after Christ’s visit. As I pondered it I learned something. This pride cycle was different because they couldn’t repent and get out of it. Why? Maybe because this was after Christ’s visit. I always imagined that Christ revealed temple ordinances to the Nephites, the same ones we have today. They apostatized from that knowledge, greater condemnation. They were administering those ordinances to unworthy people. That’s bad. Megan told me a bit about the temple, so this thought fit in well. I love the temple.

So, every house in the mission got an oven this week. Mom, could you send me a recipe so this oven has a use for me? Maybe brownies or cinnamon rolls. That would be cool. Just make sure the ingredients exist in Uruguay, thanks.

I have no time. I love you all. Lots.

Elder Whitaker

18 October 2010

Wow, do you know what just happened this week? I got a letter from everyone – every parent, brother, sister and sister-in-law. What did I do to deserve this blessing? There were so many letters I won’t even try to read them now; I’ll print them out and read them later. But I hope everyone is doing well.

Mom, I got my absentee ballot letter thing in the mail. Could you send me who you’re voting for so I can copy you. I’m uninformed and really don’t care much right now. You sending me information is option #1. The other option is I can let my companion vote for me. It would be a good opportunity for him, maybe a once in a life time opportunity. And could you let me know when I need to get that sent by and how to send it. I think postage is free, but I don’t know if that will fly with the Correo Uruguaya.
So the miracle of this week was we baptized a family. We had 3 baptisms Saturday. It was really cool. The father is Robert. He’s a computer programmer, kind of rare to find in Uruguay. His latest work has been designing apps for ipods. He loves the computer and for the first time in my life I could see someone use mormon.org the way the brethren wanted it to be used. He was all over general conference and the Mormon Messages. He even put some on a cd for us to use. The cool thing is that we could baptize a family, and even better, future leaders of the church.

What made this experience even better was the fact that it all happened with Elder Vargas. A year ago when we were together we had zero baptisms. We worked hard, really hard. I learned this week, more powerfully than ever, that the Lord blesses us when we work hard in his cause. Sometimes the blessings come a year later, but the Lord will always keep his word. There’s a cool scripture in D&C 58 I think that talks about this – left hand page left column in Spanish.

But I think that’s it. I love you all. Thanks for the prayers and support.

Love, Elder Whitaker

11 October 2010

Wow. It sounds like everyone is doing well. Here are the questions. Is my companion Elder Vargas almost done with his mission? Yes. This is his last transfer. Where is my companion from? He’s from Honduras. How many times have I gone to the temple? 2 in the MTC and twice in the field, and twice in America I think. We got good news this week that we’re going this November during our zone conferences. Yeah, I’m excited.

This week was a tough one. It’s hard being a zone leader. We did something we never did before this week. We got in a city bus and shared the gospel. It took a lot of guts to do it, but it wasn’t that hard. We prepared a ton of pamphlets with the mission phone number and did what we do best. We liked it so much, and had leftover pamphlets, that we did it two more times. We had 80 contacts before 8 AM.

I want to share what we did in district meeting to help the zone focus on our baptism goals and feel the spirit. It was weird. One day I thought, “Why don’t we have a meeting in all white clothes, baptism clothes?” It was a weird idea, but I shared it with my companion. We prayed about it and felt good. Today we had our first district meeting of the transfer. All 12 missionaries were in white. We all introduced ourselves and bore our testimonies. It was so cool. When we were in white we announced that we were going to be able to go to the temple this transfer. It was really cool. I’ll never forget it.

I’m out of time. Enjoy the letter and photos. I’m sending pictures of me and my old companion from last transfer. One was our last baptism and the other is a big “animo” booster I left in my old house. It’s even better now, but I don’t have the picture.

I love you all,
Elder Whitaker

5 October 2010

Thanks for all the letters. Yes, Mom, this week was transfer week, but before I get to that I want to tell you about all the miracles I saw at general conference.

On the 5 sessions, we had 9 investigators. That’s incredible. Cindy and Nicolas, Alejandra and Andres, Andrea and Richard, all couples that need to get married. Carmen and Agustin, and Axel. Huge miracles. I was so happy to help people hear the voice of the Lord’s prophet. I was sitting in one of the sessions and realized that we had 2 investigator families present. I can’t explain the joy that filled my soul. I’m doing my job and I’m happy.

Unfortunately, I’ve been transferred from that area. I didn’t want to leave. But the cool thing is I’m in the same zone and same city. I’ve been called as a zone leader and I’m serving with my second companion, Elder Vargas. I’ll be helping him end his mission. Exactly a year ago we were together, and we’re back together. I’m so excited.

I’m glad everyone enjoyed conference. I agree, the topics seemed to be follow the prophet and agency, and gratitude. The human race needs to be more grateful. That’s what the Lord told the prophet.

Well, I think that’s it. I love you all.

Elder Whitaker

27 September 2010

Wow, it sounds like everyone is doing well. Thanks for the letters. I got a few questions today.

Will I get to watch general conference live? As live as they can translate it. We’ll be in the district
center and there should be a handful of Americans, so I might be able to watch it in English again.

Have I ever taught a seminary lesson? No. No one ever invited me to seminary.

Could I write a valedictorian speech for Steven? I don’t have time for that chore – unless you want it in Spanish and on a gospel topic.

And what is my favorite cultural tradition about Uruguay? That’s a good question. Maybe a cultural characteristic that I love is when it rains the whole nation kind of shuts down. And then they make tortas fritas – dough fried in cow fat. Be careful with how many you eat. They’re really good with dulce de leche.

Note: Here's a recipe if you want to try tortas fritas yourself some cold, rainy afternoon.

We had an awesome baptism this Saturday. Maria Espinosa got baptized. 34 people came and 8 were not members. Then the 4 we had at sacrament meeting made it a good week. My comp and I are working hard and the whole branch is being affected. It’s really incredible to see the transformation. We’re being blessed so much. We’re being so blessed it’s becoming a challenge. Never thought I’d say that! But we just don’t have time to do all the good things we want to do. And unfortunately I don’t have enough time to tell you about all the miracles we saw this week.

I have a scripture insight for you all. It only works in Spanish, though. Jacob 5:70-72. In Spanish it says “la estacion viene rapidamente,” or the season come quickly. Our branch is called Estacion. “La rama estacion viene rapidamente.” If you put that in the context with the scripture it gives me the attitude I need to work hard.

I love you all. Thanks for all the help. I was going to send pictures, but I don’t have time. Maybe next week.

Love, Elder Whitaker

20 September 2010

Thanks for all the letters. I’m doing great. I have a few questions to answer though.

Cody was wondering if I get to eat a lot of rice and beans. I don’t remember ever eating rice and beans. Rarely beans find their way into guisos; a suiso is a stew you eat in the winter that has meat and veggies and either pasta or rice. We eat a lot of pasta with tomato sauce, milanesas, which are fried meat, and a few other things. I really like the food generally.

Brad’s question was about the leadership training without my companion. The meeting was for leaders and future leaders. Right now my only calling is senior companion. The meeting was for half of the mission; the other half is having the meeting this week.

And yes, I know Elder Sluder, Mom. He’s an interesting kid – a great kid though.

Steven said Brother Slovacek was his teacher. I’m assuming he meant the one that just finished “presidenting” a mission. Say hi for me then.

What else do I have to say? This week’s miracle was we had 6 or 7 investigators at church. The zone’s goal was 8. Almost made it. I won’t complain though. We had 6 of ours and 1 extra from another branch – the mother of our investigator – the one that is getting baptized this Saturday.

I hope the Lord lets me stay in this area a long time because we are really seeing huge miracles. This branch has only had 2 baptisms this whole year and right now I can see like 8 people that could be baptized. It’s exciting work.

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

Elder Whitaker

16 September 2010

So this is weird, writing on Thursday and everything. On Monday, we had a leadership training conference in Montevideo. It was Monday and Tuesday. Awesome. We learned about all the new missionary focuses and now we are putting them into practice. But there was a miscommunication in how we were going to have our p-day. My companion stayed in our area with another elder; they had p-day on Monday. So the elders that went to the meeting were supposed to have p-day on Wednesday, but I got back and we had to work. So I didn’t really get p-day, but that’s okay. I just wanted to write and say I’m fine.

I finished Jesus the Christ this morning and really enjoyed it a lot. I have to decide now what I’ll be studying.

I want you all to know that I’m really enjoying the mission more than I ever have before. President da Silva has asked us to make significant changes, significant changes in who we are, what we do, and how we do it. As I have been trying every day to make these significant changes, I have been blessed with a joy that I have never felt before in my life. I can feel that the spirit is really being y constant companion. President told us where we had 6 before we need to be getting 20, where we had 15 before we need 50 now. I’m seeing these things change and happen. Last week we had 6 at church and we invited 8 people to get baptized and all of them accepted. We’ll have a baptism the 25th. Her name is Maria Espinosa. We taught her the law of the tithe yesterday and it was awesome. I love my job.

I love you all. Thanks for all the support and prayers, but I have to go and find Julio and teach him what Jesus Christ would have him know.

Love, Elder Whitaker

6 September 2010

It was good to hear from you all. It sounds like everyone is having fun getting back to school. Wow, I can’t believe football season is already back. I remember last year when that happened, it caught me by surprise. It’s interesting to note that I liked to know last year, but as of right now, I could care less. Isn’t that cool that I’m more involved in the work? It makes me feel good that I’ve matured.

So this week I saw a really cool miracle. It all happened because I got sick. I got sick in part because it rained all week. A yearly storm called Santa Rosa came it. It rained from Tuesday until Saturday morning, a constant annoying drizzle. But I got sick and got a priesthood blessing and took vitamins and medication and went to work. At the second day of being sick, I woke up with “Alma 8” in my head. I had no idea what Alma 8 says, so I went to read it. I didn’t catch what I was supposed to get the first time. So, I read it later again during my language studies. The first verse says Alma went to his house to rest. Was that a message to me? So I asked and got an answer. I rested, took a 90 minutes nap, then I went back to work. I felt better and we had an amazing day. It was really cool, though. The Lord knew I was going to work until I couldn’t, but I needed to rest. It was cool because I never got personal revelation in that way before.

I think that’s it for now. I’m running out of time. I love you all. You are always in my prayers.

Love, Elder Whitaker

30 August 2010

Wow. Thanks for all the emails. It sounds like everyone is doing really well. Mom asked the question if I live in a 2 or 4 elder house. There are 4 of us, 3 Americans and my comp from Paraguay. The 3 of us all came together to the mission, but I never go to know them that well because I was put in the Latino group (at the MTC).

Steven, have fun with all my old teachers. It looks like you have 4 or 5 that I had. You’re welcome for my setting the bar really high. Good luck doing better than me.

And Michelle mentioned something about keeping the house like the temple. Ironically, I had been thinking about that this week, and I changed something to make our house more like a temple. I set a goal. Sometimes I would do what I needed to do faster than the schedule gives me. In the morning or at night when that happened, I would start my studies or sleep earlier. But this week I put that time into cleaning the house. One morning I swept and mopped the floor. I also washed dishes and cleaned my desk. It’s made a difference. I’ve been able to sacrifice 2 things I like to be able to feel the Spirit more – some sacrifice.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Enjoy that. I’ll refrain from any other comments. Just know I’m thinking of you.

So, I’m really excited for this transfer. I love my companion. This is his third transfer and he’s really learning English well. It’s interesting that he knows enough to be at the point in the learning process that I can help him a lot. We talk a lot in English and he always prays in English.

Another cool thing that we found out this week is that the missionary that taught my companion’s mom the gospel lives in our city. I thought that was way cool. It shouldn’t happen, but things like this happen all the time.

Our investigators are good. We were a little disappointed because those that said they’d come (to church) didn’t make it. But we’re being super obedient and we’re going to see some awesome miracles. I’m excited.

I love you all. Thanks for praying for me. And thanks for the pictures.

Elder Whitaker