13 July 2010

So, this week was good. It was my last week with my greenie. Transfers came and I’m leaving Rocha. I’m happy though, because I was getting tired of the area. I’m headed off to the department of Florida. So, we’ll see how that goes. And my comp’s new companion is my old zone leader, Elder Erickson from Texas. He’s a stud.

What else did I do this week? I can’t remember anything. This week got cold. I had to use my coat and my sweater this week which is weird because last year it was way cooler this time of year. We’ll see if Florida is cooler.

Thanks for all the support. Thanks for the prayers. Thanks for the updates. That’s it. I love you lots.

Elder WhitakerDelicious Ravioli

Another view of the Paloma Lighthouse

5 July 2010

Today was fun because we went to the famous light house at the Paloma. I took a lot of pictures. Here are 2. I’ll try to send more next week. We had district meeting and did service and the Hegerhorsts made the whole zone lunch – BBQ chicken and baked potatoes and coleslaw and toasted garlic hamburger buns and carrot cake. I love them. It was our 4th of July BBQ.
So last Sunday was cool because my companion and I got to bless the sacrament. It was the first time doing that as a missionary for me. It was an interesting thought that I was acting for Jesus Christ in two capacities at the same time. I was representing Jesus Christ representing Jesus Christ. Cool. I felt the Spirit.

We had zone conference this past week and I loved it. President da Silva is called of God, and it has been a great blessing in my life learning from him. I also got my conference Ensign this week. It’s about time. But I learned something incredible reading President Monson’s welcome to conference. Our prophet was grateful 5 times, hit about 7 or 8 important doctrines and taught the plan of salvation. His wife fell, had two injuries, more recovering, then went home. Adam fell, spiritual and physical death, atonement, persevering to the end, celestial glory. It was an incredible insight and I don’t know where it came from. Cool, eh.

Lots of love, Elder Whitaker

28 June 2010

So, this week was really good. At district meeting last week, Sister Hegarhorst made chocolate chip cookies to share with the zone, and she made them thanks to Mom’s blog (here's the recipe). Thanks a million Mom. It was good to eat a good old chocolate chip cookie rather than an alfajor.

This Saturday we had our baptism. Norma and her adopted daughter Victoria got baptized. Norma recently moved from Maldonado, another state, to Rocha, where her kids live. She wanted to be closer to her family. She went to church with her son, and then we got a golden reference. Her son baptized her. It was really special and it was my companion’s first baptism. But the baptism gave me a question to ask. Is the baptismal prayer the only time in our church where we do something in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost? Just something I was wondering.

Another special thing that happened this Sunday was I had a spiritual epiphany. I was sitting on the stand in sacrament meeting because I was leading the music. Yeah, can you believe that? I was sitting there and I could see the entire congregation. Sister Pizarro was speaking, a sister that remembers Grandpa, and I realized that I love the people of Uruguay. As I realized that the Spirit was very strong. I love the people with whom I serve.

And Dad, you’re welcome. It’s the least I could do. I’d like to see how it turned out. Anyway, I’m still working on my goals. At least now I’m remembering to pray for help. I hope one day I can get to the point where I change and never fall again.

Well, I think that’s it. I’m going to send this and see if the pictures sent correctly.

Thanks for all the support. I love you all a ton. When people ask, you can tell them I’m doing great.

Love, Elder Whitaker

21 June 2010

Thanks for the pictures. It looks like Nauvoo was fun. And I’m glad Brad’s all fixed up from surgery. And Steven, good work on your shoe. Just last week I had some work done on a pair of shoes I have and they’re as good as new now.

So, I found an interesting scripture this week. I’m studying the New Testament and in the light of the restored gospel it all makes sense. It’s interesting that every Christian church on earth has the Bible and using the same book they get such different doctrine. For example, the Bible teaches us that we need to pray to saints but it also teaches us the God the Father is actually Jehovah. Hmmmmm. But thanks to the restoration we have all the truth.

In Philippians 4:11 I learned that we can learn to be content. It was something that has helped me. Paul was a stud of a prophet.

So, last week in sacrament meeting a drop of water landed on my suit pants during the sacrament, and it helped me remember that when I was a kid just about every week I would drip a drop of water on Dad’s pants and he would always point it out. Why is that an interesting thought? Because as early as I can remember I spent my Sundays at church. Thanks.

So Uruguay plays against Mexico in the World Cup tomorrow. It’s going to be interesting because my companion is Mexican. I hope it doesn’t affect our daily lunch with the members. That leads me to a question for my brothers. Where did you mission companions come from? I’ve served with an Argentine, Honduran, Chilean, Paraguayan, Mexican, and Provoan.

We’re really excited for this week because we’re going to have a baptism. We finally found someone that was spiritually hungry and thirsty. A mom and daughter, Norma and Victoria, are planning to be baptized this Saturday.

Dad, I hope you had a good Father’s Day and liked your present. And I think that’s it for this week. Love you all and thanks for the emails and prayers.

Love, Elder Whitaker

Oh and Steven, my companions say we look exactly the same. You're a lucky man. Have fun being 17.

14 June 2010

Thanks for all the letters and emails. I got to open letters today, so that means I got a letter from Elder Tyree. He’s doing well. Thanks for the pictures and the talk. I’m going to read it as soon as my companion starts doing his email.

So the other day I realized that I never saw a picture of Megan where she was visibly pregnant. Was Megan never “big with child”? At least for me she never was. That’s exciting that Wyatt is home. Have fun with that.

Oh, and Stevo, I hope your birthday was smashing. It just so happens that one of our investigators had a baby on your birthday. Carolina had a boy. Unlike Weston’s, he came a week late and is really ruining her chances of going to church. Lucky for us the other kids in this family are great. Two of Carolina’s kids have come to church with us and this week they invited their cousing. We’ll see how that all goes.

So this week was another miraculous week at church. We had 6 investigators – 3 kids from Carolina, a member’s mom and sister, and another lady we found this week. This other lady should be a member because her son is serving a mission in Nevada. Unfortunately, she smokes and is not married.

So, this week I had an interesting insight and I saw how something I did was prompted by the Spirit when I didn’t even realize it. There is an inactive member we visited. The first time we visited him he was yelling and really grouchy at us. We went back because we said we would. We wanted him to feel the Spirit again. At one point this brother was a member of the branch presidency and endowed. He was offended and inactive ever since. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and bore our testimonies. Then I shared Brad’s testimony with him. Brad sent me his testimony in Spanish one time. That morning I looked for the piece of paper and put it in my backpack, don’t know why. In the lesson the Spirit told me to read it, and I did, and the Spirit was strong. Then the Spirit taught me something that this brother needed to know. Why are missionaries transferred and come to an area knowing nothing about the people? I told the brother that I don’t know why he’s inactive, and frankly I told him I don’t care why. It doesn’t matter why. All I want is this guy to go to church to get the blessings the Lord has ready for him. That is how the Lord feels. He doesn’t care what happened before. He just wants us now. It was an interesting insight that I never thought of before. And the Spirit was really strong.

Mom mentioned that I had been gone a year. That’s true. It goes by really quickly. I’m not the same person I was a year ago. I’ve grown in ways that would be impossible to achieve in any other way. It’s an incredible work. Thanks for supporting me and encouraging me.

I love you all.

Elder Whitaker

7 June 2010

Wow, that’s some big news! Congrats, Wegan. Very congrats.

Mom, I’m staying warm. It’s winter, but not super cold yet. There are days of cold then really pleasant Thanksgiving-type weather here. I’m thinking about buying a sweater today. We’ll see how that goes, and we’ll see if I pay with my debit card or cash, who knows?

So, this week we had a huge miracle. We had 5 investigators go to church! And for two of them it wasn’t their first time! So, the work is picking up and after a lot of patience and hard work we can see the blessings come. When we gave our weekly reports to my district leader, he was very impressed with what we had done. We’ll see what happens next.

What else has happened? I don’t really remember. I’m still a bit sick, but I felt good enough to cook myself lunch. You could put this on your blog, Mom. I made rice and steak and vegetables and it was good, and I made a ton for to eat later.

But wow (he he), that’s cool that I’m an uncle now. That wasn’t what I was expecting when I woke up this morning. Congratulations. I’ve been waiting for this moment a long time.

I’m almost out of time. I love you all. Thanks for the pictures from Kyle, Mom. Tell his mom Hi for me. I sent him a letter the other day; we’ll see if he ever gets it.

Love, Elder Whitaker

1 June 2010

So this week I got to speak in sacrament meeting. It was fun and I learned a lot. I spoke about conversion – Alma, Paul, Joseph Smith – it was good. It was funny though because a sister fell asleep during my talk and started snoring, which made it hard for some people to focus. But I think it’s ironic payback from all the times I’ve fallen asleep in church. It’s hard to stay awake some times and I know how this sister feels. Lucky for me, I haven’t fallen asleep in church for some time.

The other really cool experience that I wanted to share happened last night. We visited a less active member. She doesn’t go because she isn’t married. I shared 3 Nephi 18:32, I think. It talks about inactive people coming back and being healed. Jesus said this right after he instituted the sacrament. We invited her back. Then I read her, in 1 Nephi 21 I think, “I will never forget thee, O house of Israel. I have graven thee on the palms of my hands.” This scripture has always been a very powerful one to me. But yesterday it had never been more powerful. We can put our name in the scripture where it says “O house of Israel” to personalize it. The Spirit bore witness to me last night that the Lord will NEVER forget us. He CAN’T.

And what made the experience even more powerful was something Elder Bednar taught us when he visited us last November. He taught us that when an apostle quotes from the Doctrine and Covenants, he is reading it under the same authority from which it was given. Joseph Smith received the revelation as an apostle in the Melchizedek Priesthood, and an apostle reads it under the same spirit of revelation. That thought came to my mind. As a missionary, if you read the literal words of Jesus Christ, as a personal representative of Jesus Christ, you are reading it under the same authority that he used in saying it originally, and that is why I felt the Spirit so strongly as I shared those two scriptures.

But thanks for the email Dad. Your advice helped. We had some awesome miracles this week.

We also got transfer calls. I’m staying with Elder Gomez in Rocha.

Steven, Happy Birthday, Biscuit Head! I would send you a card, but you don’t deserve one until you’re an Eagle Scout. Have fun on the SAT – don’t know why you’d do that again, I thought you were already going to school for free.

Michelle, stay beautiful, and I guess that’s good advice for my sisters-in-law.

Love you lots,
Elder Whitaker

24 May 2010

So this week was really good. And I’m going to try to attach pictures again. I think it’s going to work.

So, here’s the miracle that describes the pictures. There is an old inactive man who lives in Rocha. The missionaries from 50 years ago would give him these “remember me” cards, with the Articles of Faith on the back, and a picture of the temple on the front with the missionary’s address and the mission office’s address. Well, believe it or not, I found Grandpa’s and Elder Richard G. Scott’s cards.

I couldn’t believe it at first. It’s funny, because I’ve shown other missionaries the cards and the Elder Scott card just blows their minds, but Grandpa’s card is more incredible to me. I’ve had them both laminated and I use them as bookmarks for now. I’m pretty sure if I went back I could find some of Grandpa’s companions’ cards. Cool, right? I also visited where Grandpa lived and took pictures of the house for him. I don’t know if it’s changed a lot, but the members say that’s where they lived and the remnants of the baptismal font are in the back yard still. Happy Father’s Day, Grandpa. Being able to live where Grandpa served has really taught me one thing. I’ve learned a lot about tender mercies and how God really loves each and every one of his children. In Grandpa’s journal you learn that when he was 20 years old he loved genealogy and family history. He’s loved that stuff all his life and now the Lord has been able to bless him even more. Neat, right?

Thanks for all the letters and emails. I love hearing from you all. Thanks for praying for me.

Love, Elder Whitaker

FYI, this house is now an old person home and a less-active member works there. That’s how we got in. We sang to the people there before we left. It was fun.

17 May 2010

So this week I found an incredible talk that I recommend to anyone who lives in a home, from the June 2009 Ensign, a talk by Elder Callister called Our Refined Heavenly Home. It’s a really good talk about preparing our home to be more like the celestial kingdom. This talk comes from a website speeches.byu.edu, and I’ve read a lot of good talks that reference that site. It would be cool to go look there. I think it’s where they post the Marriott Center talks.

Grandpa, apparently in your "sea sick six" was an Elder Millet. The Rocha family here knew him. And Elder Millet came back later for a second mission here. I also found the daughter of a sister in one of the photos in your journal. It was really cool, because yesterday was Mother’s Day here in Uruguay, and this sister got to see her mother at church.

So here’s a really weird miracle that happened this week. It was a tough week and our spirits were a bit down. I realized that and decided Saturday to change my attitude. Saturday I also decided for some reason to make my bed really well. I always make my bed, but I do it in my way and it wouldn’t pass anyone’s inspection except mine. It’s hard to make a top bunk bed, but I did it. I made my bed and changed my attitude, and Saturday was an incredible day. We had 6 lessons and watched the restoration movie with 3 families. Stunned in shock, I made my bed really well on Sunday too. We found 7 new investigators on Sunday. That has never happened in my mission, and 6 of them were young men within the ages of 17 and 30. There was a message sent and received. Kind of funny though. You repent and get blessed. But I repented from not making my bed well. Cool.

Hey, but I love you all a ton. Thanks for all the support, emails and prayers. This week I shared my testimony with an inactive member. I told him that what we were telling him is what Jesus Christ would be telling him if he were here in that moment. The Spirit testified to me that what I told him was true. I am a representative of Jesus Christ. It has been a huge blessing in my life. I thank you all for helping me get to this point in my life.

Love, Elder Whitaker

26 April 2010

First off, thanks for the email, Weston. “Be the missionary Mom thinks I am” was some of the first advice I got from my mission president in the mission.

Also, thanks a ton for the birthday package and wedding package. I got them both this week. I would like to send some photos but we’re pressed on time today.

I really appreciate Grandpa’s missionary journal. Words can’t describe what it’s like to get to know my grandpa through his mission experiences. Words can’t describe what it’s like to walk in the same cities that he visited, ride busses on the same roads he did, and associate with the descendents of the people with whom he associated 50 years ago. On Sunday at district conference a counselor in the Montevideo Temple presidency spoke. He served here in Uruguay 50 years ago. I asked him if he would have known Grandpa. His name sounded familiar – Richard A. Kenny. I found his name later that night in Grandpa’s journal. Grandpa baptized an Amaral. I baptized Nilsa Terra Amaral. She’s like 75 years old. Can you believe that? It’s overwhelming. I hope you’re doing okay, Grandpa. I hope this raises your spirits.

So, my companion and I saw a miracle this week, lots actually, but one in particular. I always loved the story of the brother of Jared. Jared is a thinker and his brother has a ton of faith and spirituality. I wanted to try what they did. One day this week I had a righteous desire to find a family to teach. I told my companion to pray that we could be able to find a family to teach that day. And we did. We were in an area where I had never been and a grandma let us in and two of her granddaughters were there. We’re going back later.

This will be the last you hear from me before the wedding, so Happy Marriage Dave and Elizabeth. I love you lots. I’ll wear the tie on Saturday.

But I think that’s it for now. The church is true. It’s an awesome feeling to know that on the same exact streets where Grandpa’s testimony was sealed to him, mine is being sealed to me. I hope that future generations will be able to know how this feels one day.

Love, Elder Whitaker

20 April 2010

Wow, this week was really awesome. We had 2 baptisms in our branch – 2 teenage girls. The other Rocha branch had a family of 4, and the other little town’s branch, La Paloma, had one. We did them all together – 7 baptisms and 6 baptizers. The picture is really cool with 13 of us in white. The service went great. I got to baptize our branch’s 2 girls and I baptized first so I was changing while the others got baptized. It was way cool.

We also had a miracle of an investigator going to church when we didn’t expect him to go. He got to see 2 confirmations. Daniel. I love this guy. We’re visiting him tomorrow.

The other huge news is that my new companion, Elder Gomez from Mexico, arrived today. I’m training!!!! I’m so excited. I’m not district leader any more, but I’m stoked to work with a new missionary. He’s from Mexico City, the first missionary from his family. He was baptized with his whole family in 2002. I’m excited. Can you tell?

Oh Steven, did you know in Uruguay I can buy a 3 kilo bag of cornflakes for like 8 dollars. It’s glorious. I think of Steven when I enjoy my frosted flakes in the morning.

So, I was studying Alma 42:26 and I had a thought. The plan of salvation saves the righteous and destroys the wicked. Another name for it could be the plan of destruction. Just a random thought I had studying.

And another think I like about studying is I’m studying in a new Book of Mormon and I have ideas that I want to mark in the scriptures I use, but it’s weird that some of the stuff I want to mark is already marked. So sometimes as I read I have the same thoughts I had the last time I read. Just something I noticed. I don’t know if others have noticed the same thing.

But I love you all. Have fun getting married and watching tv.

The church is true and the “r” in this keyboard is broken. Sorry. [So you can be glad I re-typed everything.]

Love, Elder Whitaker

12 April 2010

So, I’m glad everyone is doing well. Congrats, Brad, on getting married. Good luck with that. It’s just a shame that everyone is getting married and not graduating from high school while I’m here. I hope you get that one.

So, what happened this week? I read in the beginning of Alma this week and was thinking about Amulek and the guy who offered him 6 onties or whatever to deny Christ. I was just thinking about how that was 42 days of pay for a governmental judge. That’s a lot of money. If a judge these days makes like 150,000 dollars in a year, that’s like offering 17,000 dollars like nothing. It just made me think. It’s interesting.

It’s interesting to read letters as a missionary, because often people write things they’ve written before, but don’t realize it. I might do the same thing, who knows? But it was cool that Steven gave the family a huge compliment today about how good our family is. It’s true. And David reminded me the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Good advice. And more than once Dad has shared how much he loves the story of Abraham. And Megan apologizes for not writing much. JK, love ya, but it’s cool to see this side of the family as a missionary.

Thanks for all of the support. I love being a missionary. It’s really hard sometimes but it’s what the Lord has commanded, and it’s all worth it.

I think I’m about out of stuff to write. The church is true. The Book of Mormon is true. The plan of salvation is true.

Oh yeah, I just remembered a miracle of the week. I’ll share it right quick. This Saturday I fasted that we could find a family to teach. I wanted to find a family or realize which family we had would progress in the gospel. Saturday night we visited a family that we’d been trying to visit but were never home. We were about to give up on them because we thought they were avoiding us. Saturday they were home and we had a great discussion and my fast was answered. God works miracles when we fast.

But I love you. Enjoy my email like always. Don’t be mad for my comments Megan and Dad and Steven and yeah.

Love, Elder Whitaker

5 April 2010

Wow, conference was awesome. There are a lot of Americans in my district and the other branches don’t have church buildings that get conference, so everyone was at our church. I got to watch in English this time and was excited about that. The two couple missionaries that are serving as branch presidents were there and brought home-made American-style goodies. It felt like home. I really enjoyed it.

I think I’m mainly going to share with you all my personal highlights of conference; hope that’s okay. In Rocha we live in a house of four elders, including Elder Martino and Elder Carter, a Texan and a Floridian. It was way cool, though, because Elder Martino’s uncle, Elder Martino, spoke and gave an awesome talk. And Elder Aoyagi spoke of the missionaries that baptized him. Elder Carter’s grandpa, Elder Carter, baptized that man. I thought that was way cool to see how small the church really is.

I loved Elder Oaks’ talk on healing the sick. An hour before that talk I was able to seal an anointing for a sick sister. It was cool that some of the questions I’ve always had were answered.
I loved what Elder Packer said about power comes from keeping our priesthood and temple covenants. It was cool because I’ve taught the same thing to missionaries before. It was really interesting to hear something I’ve taught come from the mouth of an apostle.

Elder Eyring made me want to see the new Duty to God program. If you ever get one, I’d love for you all to send me one.

Elder Bednar was really interesting because he talked about acting. Last November he visited our mission and taught us the same principle, using some of the exact same words. He’s been preparing that talk for six months. Way interesting.

And I loved President Monson’s story about the missionary who didn’t get letters. God answers missionaries’ sincere prayers.

I also want to share a quick experience that made me feel really good and I did it because of the way I was raised. Last zone conference we had some complicated travel arrangements and the couple missionaries couldn’t go with us. I took good notes and next district meeting I gave them a copy of my notes so they’d know what our president wanted them to know. I didn’t think much of it, but they were really grateful. They felt good, and I felt really good. Little things really can make a difference.

In good news, it’s getting cooler here. I found a double wide black v-neck sweater in the house left by someone. I sewed the sides and now I have a nicely tailored sweater to protect my cold body. But I ran out of black thread doing it. Sewing kits aren’t made to edit sweaters. I’ll have to send a photo.

This is getting kind of long. Sorry folks, but honestly, you enjoyed it a ton.

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

The church is true and God loves us. Take some time to look at how the Lord is blessing our family.

Love, Elder Whitaker

29 March 2010

So Dad said it was tough getting all the logistics set up for your trip to Nauvoo. I kind of know how you feel. We had some crazy travel logistics this week for our zone conference. But that’s all done and it went well. I learned a ton. It was really cool because President da Silva shared Alma 22 and the points he wanted to make I already had marked in my scriptures. Either the Spirit teaches us alike or we think alike. It was cool. President also asked us to all read the Book of Mormon in 6 weeks before the next zone conference, and mark everything that has to do with Jesus Christ. I’m learning a ton. I’m marking his works, references to him, and types for Christ. It’s way cool.

And this exercise gave me an idea of a way to read the Book of Mormon as a family. Read it normally, but each person would be looking for a specific topic and marking it all in their copy. Every now and then for FHE you could share what you’ve learned. Some topics I’ve thought of are Christ, 4th Article of Faith stuff, joy, preparation, obedience, promises, God’s mercy (from Moroni 10:3), and hearts. There are a ton of topics I’d like to study, there just isn’t time.

Thanks for the FHE ideas, and Mom, I remember "Don’t Eat Pete." I’ve done that here in Uruguay. We call it "come Pedro." Good stuff.

The other day in my studies I was thinking about Alma 48:17, the “if everyone was like Moroni” scripture. I was thinking about what you’d have to do to get a prophet to say that about someone normal, that isn’t a Book of Mormon prophet, and I got to thinking it wouldn’t be that hard, because most of the temptations come from other people. If those temptations stopped coming, Satan would have very little power. I really think you could put anyone’s name from our family in this scripture and it would be true.

I love you all. Until next week, Elder Whitaker

22 March 2010

This week was way good. One reason why this week was so awesome is because I learned a ton in my scripture studies. I started not ending my prayers to start studying so that the entire hour is a long prayer. And I realized that the Lord has been able to teach me a lot more through the Holy Ghost. Two things happened last week I'll tell you about. That quote Steven sent me went along with a lession I was planning. I wanted to share it in Spanish. It just so happened that during my studies I got a copy of the Ensign with that talk in Spanish. The chances are zero that the 1982 April conference issue would be in my house in Spanish the very morning I wanted it. It would be impossible for that to happen, but it did.

Also I was studying Ether this week. The brother of Jared put a light bulb stone on each end of the boat. With only one light there would still be darkness, but with 2 there would be always light, especially if the boat was shaped like an elipsis and the lights were in the foci. (That was for Steven. I think that's right, assuming the sides are mirrors.....tell me that insight didn't come from the Holy Ghost.) So, the 2 lights are the Bible and the Book of Mormon. With the two, every point is lighted.

In this Ensign I found a really cool talk I would recommend - by John H. Groberg on the power of family prayer. It was really cool and makes me so grateful that our family did that well. It's a shame that a lot of families don't have that habit. It's weird that when the missionaries come over it's easy to do it, but without us it doesn't happen, at least over here.

I have a random question for my brothers. Were there any cool FHE games you guys used during your missions that kept attention really well and made people think? I would love to hear about any suggestions to have another weapon in my arsenal.

So today I didn't write in the morning because we had a zone activity. We went to a national park with a huge fort and a beach. Other guys went fishing, but I didn't. I don't have the patience. We played soccer too. There's camping here, too, Dad. I hope you weren't mad at my remarks from last week. It might have been a bit disrespectful, but you would like this place Dad. La Fortaleza de Santa Teresa is what its called.

What else has happened? hhmmm. We're working hard. We have a baptism this week and zone conference so it's going to go by way fast. We will be traveling to Trenta y Tres for zone conference. I think Grandpa was there too.

I'm glad you looked up Rocha on google earth. If I knew the streets well you could find my house, or apartment; we live on the 4th floor. It's nice.

But I love you all. Thanks for all the support. Thanks for your examples to me.

Love, Elder Whitaker

15 March 2010

Thanks for the emails again. I really appreciate your efforts in writing me. First off, congrats Michelle in football. I hope everything goes well with that. Steven, I’m glad you enjoyed pi day so much. I love pie day and pie time. Let’s keep counting our blessings with regards to random math moments in our lives . . . and let’s all share a moment of silence for series right now. . . I feel great!

So that’s way cool to know that Grandpa walked the same streets I’m walking now. There are some old-time members here; maybe they’ll know him. I really like it here. The members are way good to us. And, fyi, it’s a branch and a district here. There were like 50 or 60 at church this week.

Something cool that happened this week was the sisters 30 minutes away in La Paloma had a baptism. They came to our city to do it because branch is even smaller than ours and they meet in a house. But my companion was able to baptize the 2 girls and I was able to be a witness. It was cool to be able to participate in another companionship’s baptism.

So, thanks for the McConkie quotes.* It actually has something to do with what I was studying this morning. I was studying for a district meeting lesson I’m giving tomorrow – about making our lessons shorter and more powerful. One of my favorite quotes from PMG is our calling gives us the authority and keeping covenants gives us the power. The tough part is keeping our covenants perfectly.

Another cool thing I learned this week was from Elder Nelson in 2006. Contemplate comes from “con” meaning with and the Latin root “templum” meaning a space or place to meditate. Both contemplate and temple come from this Latin root. And it’s interesting the interrelation between the temple, the home and the body. Just something cool to think about.

And one more thing of incredibly high importance. I went to La Paloma to do the baptismal interview, and there is real live camping there. CAMPING, you know what that means. Dad, try to conceal your joy right now . . . you can’t. But I think that’s it for now. I love you all. Take care.

Love, Elder Whitaker

(from Steven) - Here's a cool quote that I got in Seminary:
"This, then, is the doctrine of the priesthood. . . . This is the power we can gain through faith and righteousness. Truly, there is power in the priesthood -- power to do all things! If the world itself was created by the power of the priesthood, surely that same power can move mountains and control the elements. If one-third of the hosts of heaven were cast down to earth by the power of the priesthood, surely that same power can put at defiance the armies of nations or stay the fall of atomic bombs. If all men shall be raised from mortality to immortality by the power of the priesthood, surely that same power can cure the diseased and the dying and raise the dead. Truly there is power in the priesthood -- a power which we seek to acquire to use, a power which we devoutly pray may rest upon us and upon our posterity forever."

note: I looked up the talk Steven referenced. It was given by Elder Bruce R. McConkie in the April 1982 general conference. I liked the definition of the doctrine of the priesthood that appeared earlier in the talk, and thought you might like it as well -
"Priesthood is power like none other on earth or in heaven. It is the very power of God himself, the power by which the worlds were made, the power by which all things are regulated, upheld, and preserved. It is the power of faith, the faith by which the Father creates and governs. God is God because he is the embodiment of all faith and all power and all priesthood. The life he lives is named eternal life. And the extent to which we become like him is the extent to which we gain his faith, acquire his power, and exercise his priesthood. And when we have become like him in the full and true sense, then we also shall have eternal life. Faith and priesthood go hand in hand. Faith is power and power is priesthood. After we gain faith, we receive the priesthood. Then, through the priesthood, we grow in faith until, having all power, we become like our Lord."

9 March 2010

So, the big new is that I’m getting transferred to Rocha Centro – the city of Rocha in the department of Rocha. I’m excited. I’ll be district leader again and I still haven’t met my new companion. I think he’s a Paraguayan named Elder Barrios. We’ll see what happens. I think Grandpa was in Rocha. It would be cool if you told me where he was. [Yes, Grandpa did serve in Rocha; it was the first area of his mission and he was there from September 1957 to February 1958.]

So I learned a ton of piano this transfer. Mom would be so proud. I have a random question for Mom now though. My comp was always practicing this song on Pday called Rhapsody in Blue. I was just wondering if you could play that, because it’s supposed to be way hard. [Sorry, but no, I haven't ever tried to play it.]

And I don’t have much time, so I gotta go.

I love you all. Thanks for all the support.

Love, Elder Whitaker