5-19-14
Wow! It definitely sounds like you all have been getting hit pretty heavily with a lot of things. I think that the best thing to do is just keep doing what you know you should. Keep reading, praying, going to church and the temple, and fasting. All of those things are what help cultivate your faith and having faith in God includes having faith in His timing. Dad has been able to pull through all of these things in the past and he will continue to make it. Something that has been hard, but helpful for me, is focusing on what you can control. It's extremely easy to get frustrated or stressed over things that we have no influence over, but we shouldn't let that affect our mood or emotions. Just focus on what is in your influence to control.
This week we had a great amount of work that we were able to do and yesterday was especially awesome! Even though we have been having a lot of lessons for the past 6 weeks or so, we have hardly ever had anyone of them show up to church. Yesterday though, there were two entire less active families that showed up as well as 2 of our investigators and they all loved the Sacrament meeting. All of the talks were powerful and centered on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yesterday, was probably the best Sunday that I have had on my mission. I honestly didn't expect for that many people to show up, because not that many ever had before. As a missionary, I think that I can kind of relate to how you feel, just in a different sense. To me, sometimes I just feel frustrated that we are doing all of this work, but nothing ever seems to be happening. We are doing all we can on our part, but for some reason things just fall through or don't happen the way you want them to. All you can do is keep trying and focus your efforts and your thoughts on what you can control and leave the rest to Heavenly Father.
I hope that this week turns out a lot better for you all and that Dad starts to get better. i love you and I'm praying for you all!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Sunday, May 18, 2014
The Power of Faith
5-5-14
That picture you saw of me was Elder Lawless and I roleplaying a street contacting scenario at our Zone Development Day. We haven't had any flooding down here yet, it hasn't rained enough. The rainy season is coming soon, though.
That's awesome that you and Dad got to go to the temple. I think that that is pretty significant that you came across that scripture in the temple! That also leads into a really cool experience that I had yesterday. We stopped by a less active member's home to visit him and his family, and when we got there, the dad wasn't feeling too well. He had a terrible headache and he was light-headed and just pale and woozy. We visited with him for a few minutes and as we talked with him, he was just getting more and more sick. He asked us if we could give him a blessing right then, and we did. Literally, 5 minutes after we gave him the blessing, he was almost perfectly fine. All he had was a little headache left. It was so cool! It was simple, but clear that it was a blessing from Heavenly Father because of his faith. He told us that he has had multiple occasions where he has been deathly sick, and has received a blessing, and then within a day or two, he is perfectly fine. It was just really cool to see a blessing work that fast. I wasn't really expecting him to get better while we were there, but he did.
Noooo!!!! The Chalmer's can't move! I'm going to miss them so much! Do you know where they are planning on going after he is done with school? You should send me their mailing address so that I can write them.
I will write down some questions and things to talk about on Mother's Day. We are going to be face timing you with our iPads, so tell me what the number or username is that I need to now to call you. I think that we might plan for 7 o'clock our time-so 5 o'clock your time. Let me know if that will work as soon as possible, because I can't reply after 6 o'clock tonight because that's when our p-day ends. Have a great week! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
That picture you saw of me was Elder Lawless and I roleplaying a street contacting scenario at our Zone Development Day. We haven't had any flooding down here yet, it hasn't rained enough. The rainy season is coming soon, though.
That's awesome that you and Dad got to go to the temple. I think that that is pretty significant that you came across that scripture in the temple! That also leads into a really cool experience that I had yesterday. We stopped by a less active member's home to visit him and his family, and when we got there, the dad wasn't feeling too well. He had a terrible headache and he was light-headed and just pale and woozy. We visited with him for a few minutes and as we talked with him, he was just getting more and more sick. He asked us if we could give him a blessing right then, and we did. Literally, 5 minutes after we gave him the blessing, he was almost perfectly fine. All he had was a little headache left. It was so cool! It was simple, but clear that it was a blessing from Heavenly Father because of his faith. He told us that he has had multiple occasions where he has been deathly sick, and has received a blessing, and then within a day or two, he is perfectly fine. It was just really cool to see a blessing work that fast. I wasn't really expecting him to get better while we were there, but he did.
Noooo!!!! The Chalmer's can't move! I'm going to miss them so much! Do you know where they are planning on going after he is done with school? You should send me their mailing address so that I can write them.
I will write down some questions and things to talk about on Mother's Day. We are going to be face timing you with our iPads, so tell me what the number or username is that I need to now to call you. I think that we might plan for 7 o'clock our time-so 5 o'clock your time. Let me know if that will work as soon as possible, because I can't reply after 6 o'clock tonight because that's when our p-day ends. Have a great week! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Ten Months and counting!
4-28-14
That's great that you're going to have the sister missionaries over for dinner this week. We haven't had too many member dinners, but we are beginning to. Something that we are doing with everyone we meet is leaving the "Savior's Peace and Blessing". It is a prayer that we leave in the home by the authority of the priesthood and we pray specifically for all of those in the family. We also pray for the Spirit to be with them in their home and that they may be able to recognize missionary opportunities as they come. I love doing them because they are simple, but powerful if the setting is right.
Mom, that's great that you are studying in the Doctrine and Covenants. Something that is great to do is to study something really short and really learn about it, so that it can be embedded in your mind and your testimony, rather than reading a whole lot, learning a whole little, and not being able to recall any of it a day or two later. Going back to the basics of study and prayer is what we tell everyone we teach to do. If you are having a hard time getting much out of your reading, pray, and if necessary, fast to be more sensitive to the things that the Lord want you to learn from what you read. I have days where I will read and get almost nothing from my studies, and other days where I'm mad that studies aren't longer because I just want to keep going on what I'm learning all day. I think the time that I am the most focused and worry free is during studies. I'm so grateful for it, and I really wish that I would have used a lot more time back at home doing it. But, try and see what works for you and let me know how this week goes.
This week has been hot and exhausting, but we were still able to get a lot of teaching done. This week just seemed to float by. It was quick, had a lot of work, but nothing really crazy. Today, though, we are having a Zone training that will last the entire afternoon and night. It's going to start at 2:00 p.m. and go until about 9:00 p.m. We will have about an hour of training and the rest will be eating food, and playing games. I think it will be really fun. This is the first time that our mission president is having us do this.
Everything is going great here. Some days are slower and some faster, but it's all good. I hope that everything is well at home and that this is a great week for you. Love You!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
That's great that you're going to have the sister missionaries over for dinner this week. We haven't had too many member dinners, but we are beginning to. Something that we are doing with everyone we meet is leaving the "Savior's Peace and Blessing". It is a prayer that we leave in the home by the authority of the priesthood and we pray specifically for all of those in the family. We also pray for the Spirit to be with them in their home and that they may be able to recognize missionary opportunities as they come. I love doing them because they are simple, but powerful if the setting is right.
Mom, that's great that you are studying in the Doctrine and Covenants. Something that is great to do is to study something really short and really learn about it, so that it can be embedded in your mind and your testimony, rather than reading a whole lot, learning a whole little, and not being able to recall any of it a day or two later. Going back to the basics of study and prayer is what we tell everyone we teach to do. If you are having a hard time getting much out of your reading, pray, and if necessary, fast to be more sensitive to the things that the Lord want you to learn from what you read. I have days where I will read and get almost nothing from my studies, and other days where I'm mad that studies aren't longer because I just want to keep going on what I'm learning all day. I think the time that I am the most focused and worry free is during studies. I'm so grateful for it, and I really wish that I would have used a lot more time back at home doing it. But, try and see what works for you and let me know how this week goes.
This week has been hot and exhausting, but we were still able to get a lot of teaching done. This week just seemed to float by. It was quick, had a lot of work, but nothing really crazy. Today, though, we are having a Zone training that will last the entire afternoon and night. It's going to start at 2:00 p.m. and go until about 9:00 p.m. We will have about an hour of training and the rest will be eating food, and playing games. I think it will be really fun. This is the first time that our mission president is having us do this.
Everything is going great here. Some days are slower and some faster, but it's all good. I hope that everything is well at home and that this is a great week for you. Love You!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Easter fun!
4-21-14
I got the Easter package-thank you so much for that!! We ate through the candy pretty quick and I really enjoyed those "Last Days of Christ" papers. Those were neat! It was a fun Easter Sunday out here! The message that we shared with people this week was the church's Easter video that they put out, "Because of Him". You have probably seen it multiple times because it is all over the church's websites and they even bought out the youtube banner so that it would be on the home page and a lot more people could watch it. It was awesome to just talk about the Savior and His atonement this entire week and study it a little more thoroughly. This Easter Sunday was great, too. Everyone was super happy and nice at church. We had a few investigators show up, and they really enjoyed it. We went to a member's home for lunch and dinner, and at our dinner appointment, they had a 3 year old son, and we helped them set up an Easter egg hunt for him. When they let him start hunting for the eggs, he was screaming the entire time, especially whenever he would find an egg. He is such a hyper kid. I wish I would have caught it on my camera. He just screams when he gets excited. It was so funny. That was the highlight for the week. It sounds like you all had a nice Easter, even though the week was a little rough.
Dad, I have heard of that "Everyday Missionaries" book a lot. Everyone says that it is really good, but I don't think a lot of the members know about it here. Tonight we are going to be going to our ward mission leader's home with another family for family home evening, and we are doing a short lesson on how they can do member missionary work. We are going to talk a lot about Elder Ballard's talk in this last conference and how they can use Preach My Gospel to learn how to become member-missionaries. Hopefully, it all goes well. That is awesome that you are studying up on how you can invite others to hear the Gospel. I still feel apprehensive about approaching someone to learn about the gospel, but once you get past the first few seconds, it's easy because either they just say no and walk away, or they say sure and you just start going into your message. The key is to just grab their attention really quick and to ask them some question that really gets them thinking, in which you can provide a few quick answers.
Let me know if my letter ever got to you because I think that after I sent it off, I might have messed up the address, so it may not have gotten to you. I'm sorry if it didn't! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
I got the Easter package-thank you so much for that!! We ate through the candy pretty quick and I really enjoyed those "Last Days of Christ" papers. Those were neat! It was a fun Easter Sunday out here! The message that we shared with people this week was the church's Easter video that they put out, "Because of Him". You have probably seen it multiple times because it is all over the church's websites and they even bought out the youtube banner so that it would be on the home page and a lot more people could watch it. It was awesome to just talk about the Savior and His atonement this entire week and study it a little more thoroughly. This Easter Sunday was great, too. Everyone was super happy and nice at church. We had a few investigators show up, and they really enjoyed it. We went to a member's home for lunch and dinner, and at our dinner appointment, they had a 3 year old son, and we helped them set up an Easter egg hunt for him. When they let him start hunting for the eggs, he was screaming the entire time, especially whenever he would find an egg. He is such a hyper kid. I wish I would have caught it on my camera. He just screams when he gets excited. It was so funny. That was the highlight for the week. It sounds like you all had a nice Easter, even though the week was a little rough.
Dad, I have heard of that "Everyday Missionaries" book a lot. Everyone says that it is really good, but I don't think a lot of the members know about it here. Tonight we are going to be going to our ward mission leader's home with another family for family home evening, and we are doing a short lesson on how they can do member missionary work. We are going to talk a lot about Elder Ballard's talk in this last conference and how they can use Preach My Gospel to learn how to become member-missionaries. Hopefully, it all goes well. That is awesome that you are studying up on how you can invite others to hear the Gospel. I still feel apprehensive about approaching someone to learn about the gospel, but once you get past the first few seconds, it's easy because either they just say no and walk away, or they say sure and you just start going into your message. The key is to just grab their attention really quick and to ask them some question that really gets them thinking, in which you can provide a few quick answers.
Let me know if my letter ever got to you because I think that after I sent it off, I might have messed up the address, so it may not have gotten to you. I'm sorry if it didn't! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
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