6 July 2009

Hey everybody.

Thanks for the letters. This is the second Monday in a row that it’s rained. No wonder Pday is Monday.

So this past week a lot happened. We were teaching Paola and Elder Calarco gave me the signal to ask her to be baptized. That was scary. She doesn’t think she’s ready. We’ll see what happens with her. We also have 2 others with baptismal dates – Cristina, whose younger brother got baptized recently and Pablo, who’s getting married soon so he can be baptized. We also got introduced to Carlos out of the blue after church this week. We’ll see what happens.

This Thursday we traveled to Montevideo for a mission conference to meet President da Silva. Honestly, I was way tired and didn’t learn as much as I should have. We had to wake up at 3 to get from Durazno to Montevideo, but it’s okay because I’m sure I’ll be seeing him a lot more while I’m here.

So my listening skills are getting better. I still have a lot to learn though. I’m getting used to listening to certain people and that helps more than I ever thought it would. My feet hurt less than they did. Everyone said the first week was the worst. I believe them.

So I learned this week I’m officially a spoiled rich North American because I had never in my life washed clothes by hand. But I washed some clothes by hand and hung them out to dry. It’ll take some practice before I get any good at it.

Well, it sounds like your vacation is going well. It sounded like fun going to the temple with everyone like that. I think we’ll get to go to the temple again some time this transfer. I love the temple.

I hope this isn’t too long, but thanks for the prayers. I’m here to serve the Lord and it’s worth it.

Jeff

29 June 2009

Hey, it’s Pday again. This is a long message. I know sometimes I wouldn’t read letters that were long because I didn’t feel like reading a lot. I hope you don’t have that problem, sorry.

A ton of stuff has happened already and I’ve only been here for 4 days. Elder Calarco baptized a family the week before I got here and on Sunday the father and son got the priesthood. The father asked me to ordain him, which was still a surprise when the time came to do it because I wasn’t sure that was what he was trying to tell me. The bishop helped me with the important words, but I was able to give the blessing by myself.

The people here are amazing. It’s truly humbling to hear them pray for those less fortunate than themselves. At least this area is way better off than the one area I tracted in in Buenos Aires.

In sacrament meeting yesterday the bishop had me bear my testimony. That was fun. I Just shared D&C 76, the scripture mastery. I like it a lot.

The members always feed us lunch and so far they have been very good. We were at one member’s house and the kids were playing Uno. My whole life has been a lie, because when they play they say Una. Sad day.

Oh, yeah, this area that I’m in is called Sarandi del Yi. Now you can find it on the map. It’s like a 3 hour bus ride from Montevideo.

It’s been pretty cold here. I’m glad for my coat. I just wish I would’ve brought a hoodie for the apartment. It gets cold at night. I can see my breath inside. That’s different. Elder Calarco is my comp. He’s a good guy from where Brad’s serving. We seem to be having a lot of success. It’s normal for me but I’ve only been here 3 days. We knock doors and they let us in. We’ll see what happens later this week. We have a list of 6 people to visit and teach and like a list of 5 recent converts and less-actives.

This week we have mission conference and we’ll meet the new president. I’m looking forward to that. It’s exciting to be engaged in the work of the Lord. I love the people, and I’m happy.
Oh, and you don’t need to send this part off to everyone, but I found a miracle while reading my patriarchal blessing. It says I’ll be able to communicate well with the people. It blows my mind because I can do that already. I can say enough and they can understand it. It’s truly amazing.

Love, Elder Whitaker

26 June 2009

Family,

Well, I arrived. I sent another email but the computer ate it and I’m tired of typing. Good news is my companion is from Resistencia. He’s gonna get me working hard. The Lord knows me and I’m glad to be on his errand. In the MTC you can only see blessings in your own life. I can’t wait to bring blessings to others. Oh, Elder Calarco is his name. Hey, maybe with 2 of us out we could set a goal to have baptisms every week...wouldn’t that be something?

Lots of love, Jeff

25 June 2009

Just so you know, I haven’t gotten any letters yet at the MTC and I don’t expect a single one, because I’m leaving tomorrow. 15 days. We leave tomorrow at 4:30 in the morning. My Spanish is progressing well. Everyone can understand me, and when I read PMG or the scriptures I can understand it. The hardest part is listening because natives don’t pronounce every letter in every word, kind of tough. But zone conference yesterday was way nice. It was a quick English lesson, probably the only lesson with English since the first day.

Oh, yeah, you guys might not know this yet. On Saturday we went tracting. Every missionary in the MTC (60 probably) left in busses and tracted for 7 hours. It was quite an experience. It amazes me how it all went down. The first people we talked to we basically taught the whole first lesson and gave them a Book of Mormon. There was a grandpa, 2 sisters and grand children. Elder Fuentes leaves on Tuesday so he'll be able to visit them again hopefully this Saturday.

My time hasn’t run out, so maybe I’ll say a bit about the MTC here. Every day is practically the same. Wake up, breakfast and study time. They give us pages to study that correspond with the day’s lessons. After companionship study we have district with our morning teacher. Class before lunch and after lunch. Then we have physical activities: basketball, or soccer, or volleyball. I’ve been lucky enough to never hurt anyone in volleyball yet - miracles. When we come back in and shower we have what we call PAC. I still don’t know what it stands for, but it’s just free time to study. Then we have district with our other teacher, dinner, more district and then we plan the next day (which takes 5 minutes because we’re told what to do). Then we teach 2 practice lessons with the other elders and then get ready for bed. I never really enjoy the practice lessons because you can't teach and listen to 4 whole lessons in 30 minutes, but we do our best.

So I ran into Brad’s old companion who started working here. That was cool.

So I hope this letter gets to all the people that care, I need to finish packing and go to the temple during the rest of the day. Last week the temple was amazing. I was with all the Latinos in my zone so I had to wear the translators. Thanks Wetzel! Have fun doing whatever you guys are doing, and tell Steven I want an update on his pushups.

Love, Jeff

18 June 2009

It`s pday finally.

Yeah, like I said briefly last week, it looks like ill only be here for 3 weeks. It was a tough choice to make, because right now I’m completely overwhelmed with learning Spanish, to the point where I literally can’t understand a thing past 10. But I’m glad I’m in this situation because it’s better than being completely bored for 9 weeks.

I’m in a zone with 10 elders and one sister. There are 2 Americans and 1 Italian, the rest are South Americans. Elder Godoy is the district leader and he’s going to Brad's mission. He’s a good guy. Elder Godoy has a brother in Montevideo right now. Weird huh? My companion is from Los Angeles, Chile. It’s tough having a companion I can't understand all the time. Yeah, the first day was the longest in my life it seemed. I barely caught a thing, but my Spanish is coming faster than I ever expected, but I need to remember to be patient with it.

On Sunday we got to watch the huge stake conference Brad noted in his letter. I was given the choice to watch it in English or Spanish and I understood a ton of it in Spanish. The food here is okay, but I feel like I’m always hungry. Kind of depressing, but I'll get over it. For exercise we can play soccer or basketball on the worst hoops ever. I also do pushups to keep myself busy.

Oh, yeah. As for the classes, we have 2 teachers, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We just learn the gospel and how to teach and stuff. We haven’t gone over one grammar principle, which is kind of hard, but I have a study book. The problem is I never have time to study the book because they keep us so busy. If Brad brings his home I would recommend having Steven look at it. It’s planned better than all the ones I’ve seen in a school.

In about 45 minutes we get to go to the temple. I’m looking forward to that. It’s just across the street.

Oh, if Kyle comes over looking for dad’s lifting gloves he'll have a problem, because one of them was stuck to the inside of my shorts. So I'll have one lifting glove for a while.

Jeff

11 June 2009

I`m here and well. I was interviewed by the president and it looks like I will be on the 3 week track of training. Pray for me. There were 8 elders and 2 sisters that all met up in Dallas and we made it here okay.

Love Jeff

Elder Whitaker

Elder Whitaker's on his way to the MTC in Argentina.

Because he'll be gone, he turned over administration of his blog to Mom and Michelle for the next two years. As he sends us emails and photos, we'll keep you updated with his activities and growth. However, before he left, he specifically requested that we post this wonderful picture for all his relatives, friends and fans!

He's still our marvelous Jeff! Good-bye - see you in two years!