Sarandi del Yi

Elder Whitaker's first area was Sarandi del Yi. When he left last November, Elder Sluder took his place. Now Elder Sluder is being transferred, but before he left he took some pictures which his family shared on his blog. I enjoyed getting a feel for the area, and thought others might as well, so here you go -
town sign
a family in the ward

Bishop Barreto and his family

the ward building

A Day in the Life of a Missionary in Uruguay

I came across a blog kept for another missionary serving in Uruguay and he sent his family a description of a typical day for a missionary. I thought our family might enjoy this description as well. Elder Boyce is in a different area, but I'm sure each elder's day is similar.

So, what’s daily life like here in Uruguay? Well, we get up at 630, exercise for 30 minutes, shower, and eat breakfast in our tiny little cement block house. The members built it for the missionaries 15 years ago. The owners are two old sisters. One is a member. They own a little shop where they sell all sorts of little things. They are called almacens. There are some larger stores, but lots of people sell food in little markets next to or under their houses. They are really nice for grabbing a quick bottle of cold water or a little snack. After breakfast, we study at 8 for an hour. I usually read from the scriptures, or a general conference talk. And then we have companionship study at 9. Then, we head out to work at 10. It’s always the hardest starting out a new day because you haven’t done anything and always feel like you have to start climbing all over again. But it’s also fun because it’s a new day with new opportunities. At 12 or 1230, we have lunch with members. I don’t know if you know, but in South America, Lunch is their largest meal of the day. It usually consists of something like Melanesas (fried meat), pasta, mashed potatoes, potato salad, asado (barbecue) etc... They also have AWESOME things for desert like arroz con leche, fruit salad, dulce de leche (caramel), alfajores, and their ice cream is to DIE for! One Brother here makes us fruit salad with paltas (giant avocados). IT’S SOOOOO GOOD! After lunch we have another hour to study language. I like to read my Spanish scriptures, and of course study the grammar. After that, we work again until 9, and then head home for the night, tired and sweaty. Seriously, the summers here are pretty crazy. It’s not that it’s so hot, so much as it is humid. They have had a very wet summer with LOTS of rain, and these past few days there was a wave of mosquitoes. Thanks for the repellent Mom! Well, that’s a typical day. We just go and work. Talking to people, going to lessons, sharing the gospel message. I love it, although sometimes it gets really hard.

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

1 March 2010

Thanks everyone for the emails. Thanks for offering advice and answering my questions. It’s a huge difference as a missionary when your family writes things that can uplift someone rather than things that make you miss home. It’s a shame that lots of people don’t have a family where this type of communication works.

But what did I want to tell everyone? First, congratulate Steven on his new level of nerdyness. I noticed you didn’t even bother comparing scores with me. I’m excited that you’ll be able to help me at college. Both with homework and buying me food. I sure earned it. . .

But seriously Steve, I’m glad you enjoyed giving a talk. I love giving talks too. It’s interesting to me that you spoke about honesty and integrity. And brace yourself, because I’m about to pay you a huge compliment. A few weeks ago I found a scripture and wrote your name next to it – D&C 124:15. Everyone should know that Steven has the most integrity of anyone I’ve ever met. If anyone should be giving a talk on that topic, I’m glad it was him. You’re welcome Steven.

So I learned something cool this week. I have a leadership position as a missionary. Knowing that I’m a leader helps me be a better missionary. I know people are watching. One thing that I would often worry about is the fact that one day I will be a father. I often wondered if I would ever do stupid things as a father. But it’s really cool to me that being district leader is a lot like being a father. If this calling makes me a better person and helps me to “watch myself” (Mosiah 4:30), the calling of a father will probably have an even greater impact on me. It was an interesting thought I had. Maybe Dad or Mom can comment about his idea that I had and tell me if I’m close or way off the mark.

Another thing I learned this week is that the message we share as missionaries is the most important message that there is. This week I’ve made an effort to tell more people that. The result is different than I expected. Saying this doesn’t make more people listen, but it does make me mean what I say, and it makes me sad when and if they reject their opportunity to learn more. I hope that eventually the people will see the sadness in my eyes and maybe that would help them realize or soften their hearts. Who knows?

And Mom, I talked about obedience and sacrifice last week. I think I mentioned 1 Samuel 15:22. Interestingly enough, President da Silva shared that scripture this week at zone conference. That was interesting.

Happy birthday to all those that have birthdays this month. Is Megan’s birthday this month? I feel bad because I really don’t know when it is. Happy 22nd Brad.

Well, I think that’s it for this week. I love you all. Enjoy the email. Choose the right. And right me letters. . . . (I just thought that right now and spelled right wrong on purpose. . .)

Love, Elder Whitaker

22 February 2010

Thanks for the emails. The week was a tough one. We worked really hard.

So, with the new email, I got all the emails you sent today, so what you’re doing is working. I know less about it all than you do because I have 30 minutes on this thing every week and I’m not going to waste it figuring out how it works when I could be writing something.

So, something cool that happened this week is I made French toast with homemade maple syrup. I didn’t even know I knew how to make all those things, but I had what I needed and it worked. And I really enjoyed it all. It reminded me of home and how good Steven and Michelle have it.

So, one thing I was wondering is what were some of my brothers’ favorite scriptural thoughts to share during the mission. I told you guys some of my favorite ones last week, and just wanted to know some of yours.

And I have a question for my brothers that served already. One thing I’d like to better in my life right now is to have more meaningful prayers. What did you guys do during your missions to have meaningful prayers? It’s hard to find quality time at night with planning and calling the district and everything. I’d like some suggestions, but we’ll see what happens between now and next week.

So Mom asked how my studies have been. I haven’t written anything I’ve been studying in a while. So I’ve been looking in the scriptures for answers to my problems. The problem here is like what the sisters in Valrico are facing – no one lets us in, they don’t progress, and they don’t come to church. So, here’s the answers the scriptures gave me.

Helaman 10:2-5. Nephi faced the same problems. He worked hard and the Lord gave him the sealing power. I was likening the scriptures to me, so . . . I might have just got the sealing powers. . . . The next scripture I found was D&C 117:13. It says our sacrifice is more important to the Lord than our increase. I learned that what I can do to increase the church in any manner is not as important to the Lord as my sacrifice. And in 1 Samuel 15:22 the Lord says that obedience is more important than sacrifice. And we’re being obedient.

So, basically, we don’t see visible success, but that doesn’t matter, because we’re happy. We’re way tired but we always finish the day happy. It’s cool. As soon as the Lord wants us to baptize a ton we’ll be ready for him.

Okay, that’s all the things I planned on telling you. I feel like I wasn’t too focused this time because the other elders are talking behind me. I’m trying to listen to them and write at the same time. It’s kind of tough.

But I love you all. Thanks for the emails. Steven, I love how you dominate Spanish, you crack me up. Michelle, stay beautiful and try teaching Steven to swing dance. It will help both of you. That way Steven doesn’t have to dance with the other girls.

And I think that’s it for now. We’re going to go to McDonald’s now and celebrate Pday.

Love Elder Whitaker

Pouch Mail

Someone just asked about sending letters to Jeff through the Church's pouch mail system, so I thought I'd post the link to the instructions. Here it is. Pouch mail doesn't accept anything in an envelope, so either a postcard or a three-fold letter would be acceptable.

Here are the instructions for making a three-fold letter:

• Lay a single-sheet letter down with the writing facing you.
• Fold the top of the letter about one-third of the way down, and crease.
• Fold the bottom of the letter to the top of the first fold, and crease.
• Use two pieces of tape or two sticker tabs on the top to secure it, not more than one inch from each side, but do not seal the ends.
• Do not include any other item in the letter such as printed pictures, currency or medication, etc.
• In the top left corner, write the return address.
• Affix a first-class stamp in the top right corner
• In the middle of the sheet, write:

Elder Jeffrey Bryan Whitaker
Uruguay Montevideo Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, Ut 84130-0150

Be sure to let me know if you have any questions! Have a great day :)

15 February 2010

So, thanks for all the emails. I got a ton this week. But wow, it sounds like everyone is doing well. Thanks Mom and Dad for your testimonies. Of everyone’s those were the two I recalled best.

So, Steven, good job being smart. I’m jealous of the love you have developed for learning. You could’ve helped Dave and I in Physics last year. Good luck choosing classes next year, because it seems you’ve already taken all of them. I would recommend weightlifting and English 4.

So for week’s our house has had a bag of fruit-flavored marshmallows. This week I made rice crispy treats with cornflakes. It was good, a nice change from alfajores. Good thing Mom taught me how to do that. We also celebrated Valentine’s Day by buying a cake. We bought the “African Premium” cake. It was so good. I miss Mom’s desserts.

So Mom you mentioned D&C 84:88. I love that scripture. I share it often. My scriptural thought involving that scripture is I read it and talk about angels around us. I always show the family picture I have around our fireplace from 2007. I testify that those are the primary angels around us that are supposed to sustain us. And that my angels sustain me.

Brad said he had a goal of memorizing Alma 34. I love Alma 34:3. It changed my mission and it was a very, very specific answer to a prayer and problem I had. It helped me develop the testimony that the Book of Mormon answers all our questions and problems.

Oh, and in my studies this week, I read a really interesting marriage talk I would recommend to everyone who is married or might be married one day. And appropriately yesterday was Valentine’s Day and this might have been the year where that actually meant something to more than half of us. It’s a talk by Elder Holland called “How do I love thee?” He gave it February 15, 2000 at a BYU visit.

And my companion and I are going great. The work is the Lord’s and that’s why we don’t have the visible “success” I wish we could have. But after 3 weeks together and over 630 contacts, we had someone in church yesterday. A member invited him and he came. That’s what we were working on and the Lord gave us a miracle. This week we’ll be working on setting baptismal dates. Ask me about the miracles next week.

Sorry this is so long, I hope it’s interesting enough. I love you all. Thanks for your examples. I’ll try to make a list of a reason I love each of you specifically and you’ll get it eventually.

Love, Elder Whitaker