12-8-14
Hello,
We had a really great week of work this last week. We were on bikes, but we got a lot of members to come out and work with us a lot. One of the members that comes out with us, almost on a daily basis, is Amos. He loves missionary work and he always brings us some food or takes us out to eat whenever he comes with us.
As of right now, we have eight people that we have baptismal dates set for, and I think that a lot of them will follow through. There is already a couple of them that I think we are going to have to drop soon, but that is still a lot more people preparing for baptism than I have had throughout the rest of my mission at any one point in time!
Our ward had a Christmas party this last Saturday night and it was really fun. Some of the members did special musical numbers and they had a little nativity scene at the end of the party. The weather here has been really nice lately, around 65-75 degrees.
Yesterday was the first fast and testimony meeting that I have been to in this ward and it was amazing! It was very spiritual and uplifting!
Tomorrow we have our mission Christmas party at Bradenton beach We are going to have some training and spend the rest of the day hanging out with other missionaries and playing some games. It should be a lot of fun. I will get to see Elder Swallow again, as well, as well as Elder Barnett. All of my other past companions are dead - haha!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Short but Sweet!
12-1-14
Well, sorry but this week's email is going to be pretty short because we don't really have p-day today. We have two hours to do our shopping and email because Thanksgiving counted as our p-day for this week. A lot happened though, especially this last weekend. On Saturday, we picked up three new investigators and set baptismal dates for all of them. So now, we have a total of five individuals who are preparing for baptism before the end of December, and we are going to hopefully set two more dates today for the beginning of January with some other investigators. We are kind of concerned for two of them who have dates, though, for the 20th of this month. They are both really excited to be baptized and are living most of the standards that they need to, but they don't remember a lot of the things that we teach them. So, we are focusing on helping them understand the very basics of what they need to know in order to be ready and trying to think of ways that we can teach them that will help them more easily remember what it is that they are taught.
Love you,
Elder A. Whaley
Well, sorry but this week's email is going to be pretty short because we don't really have p-day today. We have two hours to do our shopping and email because Thanksgiving counted as our p-day for this week. A lot happened though, especially this last weekend. On Saturday, we picked up three new investigators and set baptismal dates for all of them. So now, we have a total of five individuals who are preparing for baptism before the end of December, and we are going to hopefully set two more dates today for the beginning of January with some other investigators. We are kind of concerned for two of them who have dates, though, for the 20th of this month. They are both really excited to be baptized and are living most of the standards that they need to, but they don't remember a lot of the things that we teach them. So, we are focusing on helping them understand the very basics of what they need to know in order to be ready and trying to think of ways that we can teach them that will help them more easily remember what it is that they are taught.
Love you,
Elder A. Whaley
Understanding the Restoration
11-24-14
For Thanksgiving, we just go to any member's home who has invited us to come over and have lunch or dinner with them, and for the rest of the day, we are out working and trying to see if there is anyone that we can teach.
The area is pretty great! Right now we are just trying to increase our teaching pool because we only have a handful of investigators right now. Last week was extremely slow for us because it actually got pretty cold for a couple of days and no one was outside. Elder Dardon is a great companion to work with. One thing that we are trying to work on is our planning. He is not use to filling out a full day of plans and back up plans, so we are trying to be more through and effective with that. I really can't think of anything that I need out here. Life is pretty simple as a missionary. We don't use a whole lot of things. After Christmas I am going to be starting my "6 months to sexy" though, so maybe if you want to include some healthy recipes you could do that.
This last week was pretty slow for us out here. The weather dropped down to about 50 degrees for a couple of days and so no one was outside to talk to. We have been trying to work a lot more with members to try and find people that we could teach, and we have gotten quite a few referrals, but not too many new investigators. Of the investigators that we have though, two of them are preparing for baptism. One of them will be on the 6th of December and the other on the 20th of December. They both want to be baptized, but we are just trying to make sure that they fully understand what they need to in order to receive the ordinance.
One thing that I asked myself a lot this last week is "why is the restoration so hard for people to grasp and understand?". Haha. There are so many people that we teach out here that simply just don't grasp the concept of that lesson. Our message is definitely unique to the world because it is something completely different from what a lot of people have grown up understanding about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I learned yesterday that people driving in Florida do not know how to follow directions very well. We helped out with parking for a church event that was being held for the community at a local church of another faith, and there were hundreds of people that showed up. Pretty much no one parked where we directed them to go and they all just sort of did their own thing. Even though it was a little chaotic, it worked out.
Have a great week and a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
For Thanksgiving, we just go to any member's home who has invited us to come over and have lunch or dinner with them, and for the rest of the day, we are out working and trying to see if there is anyone that we can teach.
The area is pretty great! Right now we are just trying to increase our teaching pool because we only have a handful of investigators right now. Last week was extremely slow for us because it actually got pretty cold for a couple of days and no one was outside. Elder Dardon is a great companion to work with. One thing that we are trying to work on is our planning. He is not use to filling out a full day of plans and back up plans, so we are trying to be more through and effective with that. I really can't think of anything that I need out here. Life is pretty simple as a missionary. We don't use a whole lot of things. After Christmas I am going to be starting my "6 months to sexy" though, so maybe if you want to include some healthy recipes you could do that.
This last week was pretty slow for us out here. The weather dropped down to about 50 degrees for a couple of days and so no one was outside to talk to. We have been trying to work a lot more with members to try and find people that we could teach, and we have gotten quite a few referrals, but not too many new investigators. Of the investigators that we have though, two of them are preparing for baptism. One of them will be on the 6th of December and the other on the 20th of December. They both want to be baptized, but we are just trying to make sure that they fully understand what they need to in order to receive the ordinance.
One thing that I asked myself a lot this last week is "why is the restoration so hard for people to grasp and understand?". Haha. There are so many people that we teach out here that simply just don't grasp the concept of that lesson. Our message is definitely unique to the world because it is something completely different from what a lot of people have grown up understanding about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I learned yesterday that people driving in Florida do not know how to follow directions very well. We helped out with parking for a church event that was being held for the community at a local church of another faith, and there were hundreds of people that showed up. Pretty much no one parked where we directed them to go and they all just sort of did their own thing. Even though it was a little chaotic, it worked out.
Have a great week and a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
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