Making Ice Cream!

11-17-14

Sebring is a really great area!  Elder Dardon and I had a busy week of work and service and I am learning the area a little bit at a time.  We got to use the car this week, so we were able to make it to all of our appointments clear out on the outskirts of our area.  We are currently working with two investigators who are planning on getting baptized at the beginning of December and we are doing a lot of personal finding outside of that to increase our teaching pool.
This Saturday we got to help out at the local agricultural center where the annual "Week of the Family" was being held.  It's to promote safe and healthy families.  We were in charge of making and serving ice cream that was made by a tractor.  It made enough in 20 minutes to serve about 300 people.  I know that there are a lot of tractors back in Idaho, so someone should make one of these back home because it is pretty sweet.
Yesterday I was asked by our ward mission leader to give a talk in Sacrament about missionary work and how doing missionary work can strengthen our own testimonies of the Gospel.  I talked a little bit about my personal missionary experience and what blessings I have been able to see from it, and how every member can have those same great blessing through sharing the gospel by simple means.

Here's the answers to all your questions, Mom:

1-The area is going great!  When way everything is set up makes it a little difficult to get around to our appointments and we are on car chase, so it's hard to find rides sometimes.
2-Elder Dardon is cool.  We don't have too much in common as far as interests and hobbies, but we each watched and can quote a ton of dumb movies and tv shows like: Spongebob, Hot Rod, Chowder, Psych, etc....
3-We could probably fish off of the pier, but we haven't yet.
4-Yes, the lake is pretty big.
5-This area is a lot more rural and southern than my other areas.  The town is pretty old.
6-I don't know if this area is big on car racing or not. (I had heard it was)
7-Yes, we are bedding in the living room.
8-Yes, we have places like Walmart and Wendy's.
9-Yes, I got your Halloween package and THANK YOU for that!  I forgot to include it in my email when I got it!
10- Ideas for Christmas: missionary work of course (Not sure what this means)
11-If you can figure out a way to make Skype work with Shad and the whole family on at the same time, then I'm up for it.

Love ya,
Elder A. Whaley

Elder Whaley serving up tractor-made
ice cream!  Looks yummy!

The ice cream before the tractor ride!

Elder Whaley, Elder Dardon, and the Sisters by
the ice cream tractor

Transferred to Sebring and Loving It!!!!

11-10-14

This last week has been really fun and exciting for me.  The last few days that I spent in Port Charlotte were pretty busy with Elder Swallow and I teaching people and saying my goodbyes before I left.  Thursday morning was the day of transfers and we had a member take us up there.  Elder Swallow's new companion is Elder Morris.  I don't know anything about him, except that he is about the same height as Elder Swallow.  I'm sure that they will do great together.  My new companion is Elder Dardon from PenValley, California.  He has been out on his mission for 4 months and is twenty years old.  I am his second companion and will be the senior companion.  We are serving in Sebring, out on the East edge of our mission in the middle of nowhere, and I love it!!!  It is a very unique and different place.  A lot more rural than my last two areas.  There is a rich area and a ghetto area and all sorts of areas in between.  The ward seems to be very supportive of our investigators and those that we are working with and our ward mission leader does a great job.  Our area is on car share and we were biking this last week.  It seems like there will be some temporal problems of working in the area and finding out the best way to get around, but I am excited to see what we can do here.  We live on the second floor of our apartment and it is pretty small, but we have an awesome view over a lake (Jackson Lake) right outside of our window.  The only downside is that we don't get to go paragliding or boating like everyone else around us.
I had to wear a jacket for the first time ever in Florida yesterday.  It was about 55 degrees and pouring rain while biking.  I told myself that I would never wear a jacket while serving in Florida, but I had to give in yesterday.
My new address is: 1015 Lakeview Dr. #21, Sebring, FL 33870

Love,
Elder A. Whaley

Transfers (Elder Dardon and Elder Whaley in the middle)

Elder Whaley and Elder Dardon

The view from their apartment deck

Their living room/bedroom

Lake Jackson outside the window

Their study area with the lake view

Getting Transferred

11-3-14

So, I'm finally going to be getting transferred after 10 months of serving here in Port Charlotte.  We got the email notifying us Saturday night.  I am pretty excited to go to a new area and get to know some new people, but I will definitely miss this area.  I feel bad that I am already leaving Elder Swallow, as well.  We are just about to finish this week in the training program and he doesn't like the fact that I'm leaving.  I know how he feels though, because I always hate having my companion leave and taking over the area.  Right now I am just making sure that he knows everything he needs to to take over the area.  He is convinced that he is going to end up with an elder in the mission named Elder Butt.  Haha.  Our transfer meeting will be held Thursday in the morning and I will know then who my new companion is and where I will be going.
This last Sunday was nice because I got to take the opportunity to offer the opening prayer for Sacrament and bear my testimony.  They announced that I would be leaving this next week and I had a lot of the members thank me for what I have done in this area and commented on how long I have been here.  I will let you know where I end up next week and who I will be serving with.  Love you!

Love,
Elder A. Whaley

Elder Whaley and Elder Swallow.
Elder Whaley's last night in Port Charlotte.  

Ghost Pepper Chili

 10-27-14

   So this week went better for us and we were able to keep a lot more busy working and teaching.  We met with that family that we found a few weeks ago and talked about baptism and they all seemed really excited about it, but the mom has a concern about the age of accountability.  We told her that it was eight years old and she feels that that is not old enough to be able to make a decision like baptism.  She said that she would pray about it though, so hopefully, she will get her answer.  We are going to meet with them again later this week.
   We had some cool finding opportunities this week by knocking on some doors around the church and offering church tours.  We found a few people who might be interested and set up some appointments.  We also walked down along the bay with all of the piers and talked to some people who were fishing and crabbing.  We are going to try fishing next p-day down by that area.
   Sundays have been a lot crazier at church because we are following up with every member that we have extended invitations to to do missionary work and seeing what we can do to help them.  We also have been interviewing some members about missionary work and seeing what they can do to invite people.  It's definitely uncomfortable and different, but it works.  Before we started implementing "Sunday Gameday" the most the mission ever received for referrals on a given Sunday was 30.  Last week the mission received over 700 referrals on Sunday!
    Last Sunday the Bishop asked me to talk about my mission in sacrament.  He wanted me to speak about what lead me to my mission and what blessings I have been able to realize.  I talked about those two points for about the first five minutes of my talk, but then I saved the last five to talk about member missionary work.  I referred to Elder Ballard's talks given on missionary work back in April 2014 and October 2013.  I think it was pretty straight forward and to the point that we need them to help us find people to teach.  I got a lot of compliments after the meeting, but no one mentioned anything about missionary work.  Haha.  I hope that I was able to help someone in the meeting know how to be involved in missionary work.
   We have transfer calls coming us this next Sunday, so I will find out then if I will be staying or leaving.  My guess is that I'm leaving, though.  We do have a chili cookoff and a trunk or treat activity coming up this Wednesday.  Elder Swallow and I are going to make some hot chili with ghost peppers from one of the less active members that we are teaching.  Our ward mission leader told us that if we end up doing that, that we have to put a caution sign on it because he doesn't want any of the old people eating it and dying.  I'll let you know how it turns out, though.  Love you all!

Love,
Elder A. Whaley

Challenging Week

10-20-14  

It sounds like the primary program was fun to watch.  You should send me some pictures of what uncle Craig's haunted houses look like, because I still don't understand what you mean by "advent house".
   This week was probably the slowest and most difficult week of work that I have had in quite a few months.  There have been a lot of changes taking place with the way we are working in the mission and since we dropped all of our non-progressing people, we have been struggling to find new people to teach.  We ended up with 14 lessons, which I haven't gotten that low in over 8 months.  Our ward mission leader wasn't too happy about it, but he understands why it was so slow for us.  I think we have it more set up for ourselves this week, and we just need it to work out-haha.
   This last week we found a family of five that are really interested in learning more about the church and likely joining it.  We are going to be teaching them tonight and trying to set a date for baptism with them, but unless I were to stay here for one more transfer, I won't get to see them baptized.  I've been here for a long time and I'm guessing that I will be transferred out of here in a couple of weeks, which would make me both sad and happy.  Sad because we are starting to get some really solid people who will probably be baptized soon and happy because I think I'm ready for a new area.  We have 2 1/2 more weeks in the training program and then we will be finished.  We'll see what happens at that point.  I hope you have an awesome week and that all goes well for you.

Love,
Elder A. Whaley