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
Sunday, November 23, 2014
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
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
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| Elder Whaley serving up tractor-made ice cream! Looks yummy! |
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| The ice cream before the tractor ride! |
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| 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
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
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| Transfers (Elder Dardon and Elder Whaley in the middle) |
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| Elder Whaley and Elder Dardon |
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| The view from their apartment deck |
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| Their living room/bedroom |
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| Lake Jackson outside the window |
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| Their study area with the lake view |
Sunday, November 9, 2014
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
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
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| Elder Whaley and Elder Swallow. Elder Whaley's last night in Port Charlotte. |
Saturday, November 1, 2014
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
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
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
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Mr. Handyman
10-13-14
That's so great to hear that Landon is heading off on his mission now as well as the Smith's. Have you heard how other missionaries in the ward are doing on their missions? I haven't heard anything about people like Cooper Speakman or Spencer Owens.
We had our Zone Conference Tuesday and it was held at our church meeting house. I really liked the movie, but that may be because it is the first movie that I have seen in forever. It wasn't too long, but it felt like it because we never sit and watch anything for more than 10 minutes or so. I guess the movie was really popular down here, so they are extending it's viewing until this Thursday and if it does well, then it will go to a lot more theaters. So, we are really pushing people to go see it.
This last week was a little slow for us because we are working on increasing our teaching pool and trying to find through members. Yesterday we applied "Sunday Gameday" where we set up appointments with as many members as we could to talk about missionary work. During third hour, we pulled individual priests out of class to talk to them about their missionary work and what they are doing to prepare for a mission. Doing all of this added a lot more to our Sunday routine, but it made it more effective.
This last week I also learned how to be more of a handyman. Last Monday our land-lady showed up and said that she would be inspecting our apartment today. We have always done a good job at keeping the place really clean, but there were a few things that needed to be fixed. Last week my sink broke, the towel rack fell off of the wall, and we had to replace some light fixtures that had been broken a while ago. So, for the sink, I had to buy and replace the pop-up section and clean it out. It was pretty nasty, but it was handy to learn how to do it. Then for the towel rack, we just got some caulk and resealed it to the wall where it fell out. The light fixtures were a little more costly, but we replaced those as well and now our apartment is in tip-top shape.
P.S.-I don't know if I ever told you or not, but back in May, some construction started on tearing down and rebuilding a bridge right next to our complex, and it was our route to the church that was really close and easy. For the past 5 months, they have been working on it and we have had to take a much longer alternate route that used up lot of our miles, but they finally finished it this last weekend! That was probably the highlight of my week. Haha
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
That's so great to hear that Landon is heading off on his mission now as well as the Smith's. Have you heard how other missionaries in the ward are doing on their missions? I haven't heard anything about people like Cooper Speakman or Spencer Owens.
We had our Zone Conference Tuesday and it was held at our church meeting house. I really liked the movie, but that may be because it is the first movie that I have seen in forever. It wasn't too long, but it felt like it because we never sit and watch anything for more than 10 minutes or so. I guess the movie was really popular down here, so they are extending it's viewing until this Thursday and if it does well, then it will go to a lot more theaters. So, we are really pushing people to go see it.
This last week was a little slow for us because we are working on increasing our teaching pool and trying to find through members. Yesterday we applied "Sunday Gameday" where we set up appointments with as many members as we could to talk about missionary work. During third hour, we pulled individual priests out of class to talk to them about their missionary work and what they are doing to prepare for a mission. Doing all of this added a lot more to our Sunday routine, but it made it more effective.
This last week I also learned how to be more of a handyman. Last Monday our land-lady showed up and said that she would be inspecting our apartment today. We have always done a good job at keeping the place really clean, but there were a few things that needed to be fixed. Last week my sink broke, the towel rack fell off of the wall, and we had to replace some light fixtures that had been broken a while ago. So, for the sink, I had to buy and replace the pop-up section and clean it out. It was pretty nasty, but it was handy to learn how to do it. Then for the towel rack, we just got some caulk and resealed it to the wall where it fell out. The light fixtures were a little more costly, but we replaced those as well and now our apartment is in tip-top shape.
P.S.-I don't know if I ever told you or not, but back in May, some construction started on tearing down and rebuilding a bridge right next to our complex, and it was our route to the church that was really close and easy. For the past 5 months, they have been working on it and we have had to take a much longer alternate route that used up lot of our miles, but they finally finished it this last weekend! That was probably the highlight of my week. Haha
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Sunday, October 12, 2014
General Conference is better than Christmas!!!
10-6-14
I loved General Conference! It's seriously better than Christmas to me out here! Taking two whole days to just sit and hear the leaders of the church give us council through revelation and then to teach in between the sessions is awesome. I love it! We haven't watched Meet the Mormons yet, but we are watching it tomorrow. I'm excited for it! You had asked me how many times we pray in a day. I would say that it is around 50 or so times a day. We pray for EVERYTHING!!!! Before we even get out the door in the morning, we have already prayed about 6 times. I'll have to count it one of these days and really see how many times we do pray.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
I loved General Conference! It's seriously better than Christmas to me out here! Taking two whole days to just sit and hear the leaders of the church give us council through revelation and then to teach in between the sessions is awesome. I love it! We haven't watched Meet the Mormons yet, but we are watching it tomorrow. I'm excited for it! You had asked me how many times we pray in a day. I would say that it is around 50 or so times a day. We pray for EVERYTHING!!!! Before we even get out the door in the morning, we have already prayed about 6 times. I'll have to count it one of these days and really see how many times we do pray.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
The Work is Hastening!
9-29-14
These past seven days have been busy, and different. Last Tuesday we had interviews with our Mission President up in Sarasota where we received a lot of new instruction from him, as well as the Assistants. They have been talking a lot about having a vision for the areas that we serve in, and what it is that we are really trying to shoot for as missionaries. They had us come up with a number that we prayed about for baptisms that we would have before the end of 2014. As a companionship, we determined that we could reach 4 baptisms by the end of the year. So, in order to reach our vision, they gave us areas of improvement that the mission will be focusing on as a whole. The first thing that we are no longer doing is shaking hands at the door on Sundays. Instead, we are going around and inviting every member to do missionary work that comes in our path. We are not suppose to talk to a member without leaving them some sort of commitment. The second thing is that we are no longer teaching anyone who is not progressing. We had to drop all of our investigators and less active members who were not keeping commitments so that we can focus the Lord's time on finding the "elect".
These changes have made it pretty difficult to stay busy teaching, but now we have a lot more time to be finding those who are truly prepared to hear the message of the Gospel. The first question that we are asking people on the street is if they have been baptized. This way we are getting straight to the point and we are stating our purpose from the beginning. We have already seen a lot of great blessings come from these changes. The Lord's work is truly Hastening!
The other great thing that happened this last weekend was a baptism that we had for one of our investigators, K. Smith. His wife has been a member for over two years, and now her husband has joined as a member of the church. K. already seemed like a solid member from when we first met him. He always comes out with us on splits and is always looking to serve others. He is a great example of what a member should be.
For the service itself, our Ward Mission Leader baptized him and Elder Swallow and I got to do the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost. I usually don't enjoy giving talks, but I actually loved giving this one! The Spirit was strong during the service, and everything worked out great. Hopefully, we will be having more people brought into the fold of God here soon!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Here's a little big of information from Elder Whaley's companion:
On Tuesday we had the coolest experience ever! We went to our church building for wifi to send an email to our mission president and all of a sudden we hear someone knocking on a door. We open the door and this lady asks us for a Book of Mormon. Both of us are caught off guard....because no one likes to give us the time of day for the most part and now we have a random lady show up and ask for a BOM. So, we give her the BOM and she tries to give us $50 for it. We declined the money. She was completely shocked at turning down the money and started to ask more questions about our elision. We come to find out that she heard about the BOM through someone and has been looking for it for a super long time visiting several book stores. She told us that she just felt that she needs to read it. So, we were more than happy to explain to her about the BOM and what we believe in. She just kept asking questions. After an hour of talking to her about religion, we asked her for her phone number to contact her and she refused to give it to us. We gave her ours and she said she would cll us...so we'll see what happens. But, at least we planted a seed!
These past seven days have been busy, and different. Last Tuesday we had interviews with our Mission President up in Sarasota where we received a lot of new instruction from him, as well as the Assistants. They have been talking a lot about having a vision for the areas that we serve in, and what it is that we are really trying to shoot for as missionaries. They had us come up with a number that we prayed about for baptisms that we would have before the end of 2014. As a companionship, we determined that we could reach 4 baptisms by the end of the year. So, in order to reach our vision, they gave us areas of improvement that the mission will be focusing on as a whole. The first thing that we are no longer doing is shaking hands at the door on Sundays. Instead, we are going around and inviting every member to do missionary work that comes in our path. We are not suppose to talk to a member without leaving them some sort of commitment. The second thing is that we are no longer teaching anyone who is not progressing. We had to drop all of our investigators and less active members who were not keeping commitments so that we can focus the Lord's time on finding the "elect".
These changes have made it pretty difficult to stay busy teaching, but now we have a lot more time to be finding those who are truly prepared to hear the message of the Gospel. The first question that we are asking people on the street is if they have been baptized. This way we are getting straight to the point and we are stating our purpose from the beginning. We have already seen a lot of great blessings come from these changes. The Lord's work is truly Hastening!
The other great thing that happened this last weekend was a baptism that we had for one of our investigators, K. Smith. His wife has been a member for over two years, and now her husband has joined as a member of the church. K. already seemed like a solid member from when we first met him. He always comes out with us on splits and is always looking to serve others. He is a great example of what a member should be.
For the service itself, our Ward Mission Leader baptized him and Elder Swallow and I got to do the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost. I usually don't enjoy giving talks, but I actually loved giving this one! The Spirit was strong during the service, and everything worked out great. Hopefully, we will be having more people brought into the fold of God here soon!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Here's a little big of information from Elder Whaley's companion:
On Tuesday we had the coolest experience ever! We went to our church building for wifi to send an email to our mission president and all of a sudden we hear someone knocking on a door. We open the door and this lady asks us for a Book of Mormon. Both of us are caught off guard....because no one likes to give us the time of day for the most part and now we have a random lady show up and ask for a BOM. So, we give her the BOM and she tries to give us $50 for it. We declined the money. She was completely shocked at turning down the money and started to ask more questions about our elision. We come to find out that she heard about the BOM through someone and has been looking for it for a super long time visiting several book stores. She told us that she just felt that she needs to read it. So, we were more than happy to explain to her about the BOM and what we believe in. She just kept asking questions. After an hour of talking to her about religion, we asked her for her phone number to contact her and she refused to give it to us. We gave her ours and she said she would cll us...so we'll see what happens. But, at least we planted a seed!
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Short Update
9-22-14
It sounds like a lot of great things are happening back home. That's awesome to hear that Vanessa was in the homecoming royalty. This week we saw a lot of great blessing and were able to get a lot of work done. I'm glad to hear that Dad is doing better, and hopefully, Sundays start going well for him. Sorry I have not been replying personally to your letters, but I have been just trying to write a nice, long letter to everyone that includes everything that happened in the past week. So far, it has saved me on time. The only downside is that I don't get any replies from anyone besides you. Haha. Elder Swallow is doing well and he definitely has a lot of support form friends and family. He has gotten about 1 to 2 packages a week so far with candy and whatever other goodies are in it. It's been nice because he doesn't eat a lot, so he splits it with me. I hope that you have a great week and I will talk to you soon.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
It sounds like a lot of great things are happening back home. That's awesome to hear that Vanessa was in the homecoming royalty. This week we saw a lot of great blessing and were able to get a lot of work done. I'm glad to hear that Dad is doing better, and hopefully, Sundays start going well for him. Sorry I have not been replying personally to your letters, but I have been just trying to write a nice, long letter to everyone that includes everything that happened in the past week. So far, it has saved me on time. The only downside is that I don't get any replies from anyone besides you. Haha. Elder Swallow is doing well and he definitely has a lot of support form friends and family. He has gotten about 1 to 2 packages a week so far with candy and whatever other goodies are in it. It's been nice because he doesn't eat a lot, so he splits it with me. I hope that you have a great week and I will talk to you soon.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Loving Training and Miracles!
9-15-14
We had a pretty great week full of fun and interesting things. This last Monday we went up to the Sarasota area for a big Zone Development day where we played some games and sports and had some training to finish it off. On Tuesday, Elder Christensen went on exchanges with me in our area to work for the day. We didn't have any appointments planned, but we ended up getting six lessons and a new investigator.
The sisters in our ward had a baptism this week for a Phillipino lady that they have been teaching and they asked if I would give the talk on baptism. The program went well and when it came time for the baptism, they called Elder Swallow and I up to be the witnesses for it. As soon as she came up out of the water, she started chanting something in Phillipino, and it sounded like she was trying to speak in tongues, so we hurried and closed the curtains. I kind of expected that she would do that, but I guess that it was probably because of her previous religious background. Haha. She was confirmed on Sunday and we were invited to stand in on the confirmation.
That same day, during third hour, Hunter Mooney received the Aaronic priesthood and was ordained to the office of Priest. He had Elder Swallow do the ordination. Hunter is doing an amazing job at taking initiative to get himself to church and being active. Now his goal is to get to the temple to do baptisms.
The last big miracle that happened this weekend was back on Saturday after the baptism. We met with one of our investigators, Kevin, and talked to him about his upcoming baptism. He has been progressing so well and keeping every commitment that we leave him with. His original date was set for October 4th, but because he want to make sure that I am here for his baptism, he asked if we could move it up a week sooner to the 27th of this month. We didn't have any problems with it, so that is what we did. Now he will be getting baptized in two more weeks. I'm so excited for him!
Training is going great and I am really coming to love it! It has helped me grow a lot in regards to missionary work, and especially in my personal life and testimony of the Gospel. I love the work, and I love the Lord! I hope that you have a great week and I will hear from you soon!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
We had a pretty great week full of fun and interesting things. This last Monday we went up to the Sarasota area for a big Zone Development day where we played some games and sports and had some training to finish it off. On Tuesday, Elder Christensen went on exchanges with me in our area to work for the day. We didn't have any appointments planned, but we ended up getting six lessons and a new investigator.
The sisters in our ward had a baptism this week for a Phillipino lady that they have been teaching and they asked if I would give the talk on baptism. The program went well and when it came time for the baptism, they called Elder Swallow and I up to be the witnesses for it. As soon as she came up out of the water, she started chanting something in Phillipino, and it sounded like she was trying to speak in tongues, so we hurried and closed the curtains. I kind of expected that she would do that, but I guess that it was probably because of her previous religious background. Haha. She was confirmed on Sunday and we were invited to stand in on the confirmation.
That same day, during third hour, Hunter Mooney received the Aaronic priesthood and was ordained to the office of Priest. He had Elder Swallow do the ordination. Hunter is doing an amazing job at taking initiative to get himself to church and being active. Now his goal is to get to the temple to do baptisms.
The last big miracle that happened this weekend was back on Saturday after the baptism. We met with one of our investigators, Kevin, and talked to him about his upcoming baptism. He has been progressing so well and keeping every commitment that we leave him with. His original date was set for October 4th, but because he want to make sure that I am here for his baptism, he asked if we could move it up a week sooner to the 27th of this month. We didn't have any problems with it, so that is what we did. Now he will be getting baptized in two more weeks. I'm so excited for him!
Training is going great and I am really coming to love it! It has helped me grow a lot in regards to missionary work, and especially in my personal life and testimony of the Gospel. I love the work, and I love the Lord! I hope that you have a great week and I will hear from you soon!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Metro Training
9-8-14
So, this last week was pretty steady for the most part, except for Monday and Tuesday. On Monday evening, we drove up to central Tampa for our Metro training experience. It is something that they do for all of the trainers and trainees to have some experience street contacting. We worked up there for part of Monday and all of Tuesday. We didn't get much done Monday because we had to take shelter at a nearby Presbyterian church for about 2 hours during a severe thunderstorm. After the storm stopped, there was about five or so fire trucks that drove past us to a site where lightning struck and caused some major damage very close to us. Tuesday felt extremely long because we were out from 10a.m.-9p.m. talking to people all day long. We got to go into the downtown area and see all of the massive buildings they have. It was pretty easy to pass out cards to people who were passing by us, but difficult to stop them and talk to them for even a minute or two. Everyone had somewhere to go and something to do it seemed like. It got pretty hot during the early to mid-afternoon, so we planned our route to what the next place could be where we could stop for water. Throughout our day, we met a lot of interesting individuals. Not too many who were interested about the Gospel, but did know a thing or two about the church. Something that was also going on there was the "Book of Mormon" play. So, whenever we would tell anyone who we were, they would just start talking to us about the play. It doesn't sound like a very accurate portrayal of the church or the Book. Oh well. Overall, it was a pretty fun experience. I feel bad for all of my friends who are in missions where all they do is walk all day, everyday. Haha. I'm sure they are us to it, though. I hope you have a great week and I will talk to you later.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
I heard from Elder Swallow's mom. Here's what she said:
Elder Swallow (Logan) loves Austin! He says Austin is a great trainer and he learns new things everyday from him. He really respects him. He also said Austin is a super smart guy! Logan told us a funny story. He said they were in Tampa tracking and they were super hungry and there wasn't anywhere to eat. They looked at a GPS and saw a McDonalds, but it was two miles in the wrong direction. They were so hungry that they decided to walk to it anyway. When they got there, it was the Ronald McDonald House. Logan said he's pretty sure he cried. But, they walked back to where they came from and 2 hours later, they got food at a store. Logan said they sat down outside to eat and it started to pour down rain on them. He said it was pretty funny!
Austin is truly a blessing to Logan. We are so thankful for him being trained by such an obedient, hard working young man!
So, this last week was pretty steady for the most part, except for Monday and Tuesday. On Monday evening, we drove up to central Tampa for our Metro training experience. It is something that they do for all of the trainers and trainees to have some experience street contacting. We worked up there for part of Monday and all of Tuesday. We didn't get much done Monday because we had to take shelter at a nearby Presbyterian church for about 2 hours during a severe thunderstorm. After the storm stopped, there was about five or so fire trucks that drove past us to a site where lightning struck and caused some major damage very close to us. Tuesday felt extremely long because we were out from 10a.m.-9p.m. talking to people all day long. We got to go into the downtown area and see all of the massive buildings they have. It was pretty easy to pass out cards to people who were passing by us, but difficult to stop them and talk to them for even a minute or two. Everyone had somewhere to go and something to do it seemed like. It got pretty hot during the early to mid-afternoon, so we planned our route to what the next place could be where we could stop for water. Throughout our day, we met a lot of interesting individuals. Not too many who were interested about the Gospel, but did know a thing or two about the church. Something that was also going on there was the "Book of Mormon" play. So, whenever we would tell anyone who we were, they would just start talking to us about the play. It doesn't sound like a very accurate portrayal of the church or the Book. Oh well. Overall, it was a pretty fun experience. I feel bad for all of my friends who are in missions where all they do is walk all day, everyday. Haha. I'm sure they are us to it, though. I hope you have a great week and I will talk to you later.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
I heard from Elder Swallow's mom. Here's what she said:
Elder Swallow (Logan) loves Austin! He says Austin is a great trainer and he learns new things everyday from him. He really respects him. He also said Austin is a super smart guy! Logan told us a funny story. He said they were in Tampa tracking and they were super hungry and there wasn't anywhere to eat. They looked at a GPS and saw a McDonalds, but it was two miles in the wrong direction. They were so hungry that they decided to walk to it anyway. When they got there, it was the Ronald McDonald House. Logan said he's pretty sure he cried. But, they walked back to where they came from and 2 hours later, they got food at a store. Logan said they sat down outside to eat and it started to pour down rain on them. He said it was pretty funny!
Austin is truly a blessing to Logan. We are so thankful for him being trained by such an obedient, hard working young man!
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Triple your Income in Life
9-1-14
That's great that you got to see the Ogden temple. This week started out slow for us and picked up pace by the end of the week. A whole lot of crazy things happened, though. This Wednesday one of our investigators passed away, and that was pretty sad. We went over to give him a blessing in the afternoon and he wasn't doing well at all. Later that evening we were notified that he had passed away. When I gave him the blessing, I didn't feel prompted to say anything about being healed, but just that he would be at peace until it was time for him to go, and I guess that it was pretty soon after that.
The next day we had a lesson with one of our other investigators and we set a tentative date for baptism on October 4th. He said that he would get baptized if he knows the church it true. He is keeping all of the commitments, so I'm sure that it won't be long until he gains a testimony that it is true. This evening we have to head up to Tampa to go do "metro training". We basically are going to spend the next two days walking around downtown Tampa talking to people so that Elder Swallow can get accustomed to street contacting. It should be hot and fun! I'll let you know how it goes next week.
Mom, you had mentioned Preach My Gospel. It has everything that we do as missionaries in it. It has the five lessons that we teach and other chapters to help us fulfill our purpose. Pretty much everything I know how to do as a missionary comes from P.M.G. I would definitely challenge you all to read a section or two every night and see how you can apply it because you all are suppose to be "missionaries" as well. Elder Clarke told us that if we want to triple our income in life, we need to become converts to chapter 8 of P.M.G.
Things are going well for us out here and we are staying busy and working hard. I hope that you all have a great week! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
*A side note: We had the wonderful opportunity to meet Elder Swallow's family while we were in Utah. They are an amazing family and we loved our visit with them. I think our sons will do well together and it was so fun to get to know more about Elder Swallow. We found out that he is 5'6", so almost a foot shorter. They also have a son serving in Germany right now. We had a lot in common with them and look forward to keeping in touch with them!
That's great that you got to see the Ogden temple. This week started out slow for us and picked up pace by the end of the week. A whole lot of crazy things happened, though. This Wednesday one of our investigators passed away, and that was pretty sad. We went over to give him a blessing in the afternoon and he wasn't doing well at all. Later that evening we were notified that he had passed away. When I gave him the blessing, I didn't feel prompted to say anything about being healed, but just that he would be at peace until it was time for him to go, and I guess that it was pretty soon after that.
The next day we had a lesson with one of our other investigators and we set a tentative date for baptism on October 4th. He said that he would get baptized if he knows the church it true. He is keeping all of the commitments, so I'm sure that it won't be long until he gains a testimony that it is true. This evening we have to head up to Tampa to go do "metro training". We basically are going to spend the next two days walking around downtown Tampa talking to people so that Elder Swallow can get accustomed to street contacting. It should be hot and fun! I'll let you know how it goes next week.
Mom, you had mentioned Preach My Gospel. It has everything that we do as missionaries in it. It has the five lessons that we teach and other chapters to help us fulfill our purpose. Pretty much everything I know how to do as a missionary comes from P.M.G. I would definitely challenge you all to read a section or two every night and see how you can apply it because you all are suppose to be "missionaries" as well. Elder Clarke told us that if we want to triple our income in life, we need to become converts to chapter 8 of P.M.G.
Things are going well for us out here and we are staying busy and working hard. I hope that you all have a great week! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
*A side note: We had the wonderful opportunity to meet Elder Swallow's family while we were in Utah. They are an amazing family and we loved our visit with them. I think our sons will do well together and it was so fun to get to know more about Elder Swallow. We found out that he is 5'6", so almost a foot shorter. They also have a son serving in Germany right now. We had a lot in common with them and look forward to keeping in touch with them!
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| The Swallow's and Whaley's |
It's a Boy!
8-25-14
My new companion is doing great! He is a humble elder and he has that greenie fire! Things are going well with training, but I have definitely been stressed out with it all. It's been a little exhausting trying to do everything, but it's getting better day by day as I involve Elder Swallow a little more and more. He is from Clinton, UT. He likes a variety of things, but something that is cool about him is that he speaks German pretty fluently. He took it all throughout high school.
Well, this week was crazy with all of the changes. Elder Lawless left Monday morning up to Tampa and got home Tuesday evening. I stayed with the Venice elders for all of Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, they dropped me off in my area where I worked all day with one of the priests in the ward, then I went back to Venice for the night. I went up to Tampa on Thursday morning and picked up Elder Swallow and came back down and worked. We still managed to get in a good number of lessons with all of the time that I was gone for the week. I have felt somewhat lost and unprepared for the past few days, but so far I have been able to manage and keep everything moving. We had a pretty cool experience with street finding this Saturday right by the church. Elder Lawless and I hadn't done it in a while, but I decided to do it so that Elder Swallow could get some practice. We parked the car and we didn't even get out of the parking lot before we stopped someone who was riding through on their bike. We talked to him and set up a church tour for this next week. About one minute later, someone honked at us and flipped a u-turn to stop and talk to us. The lady was a young women's president who told us about one of her young women that had just moved to Port Charlotte. The girl's parents are not members and she wanted us to teach her and possibly her parents. This all happened within a hundred yards of the church. A few hours later, we took the same route of travel and ran into two more people right outside of the church parking lot and set up church tours with them. It was so cool to have all of that happen right off the bat for us. I guess those are some of the blessings of training! I hope that this week will go well for both you and me! Love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
My new companion is doing great! He is a humble elder and he has that greenie fire! Things are going well with training, but I have definitely been stressed out with it all. It's been a little exhausting trying to do everything, but it's getting better day by day as I involve Elder Swallow a little more and more. He is from Clinton, UT. He likes a variety of things, but something that is cool about him is that he speaks German pretty fluently. He took it all throughout high school.
Well, this week was crazy with all of the changes. Elder Lawless left Monday morning up to Tampa and got home Tuesday evening. I stayed with the Venice elders for all of Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, they dropped me off in my area where I worked all day with one of the priests in the ward, then I went back to Venice for the night. I went up to Tampa on Thursday morning and picked up Elder Swallow and came back down and worked. We still managed to get in a good number of lessons with all of the time that I was gone for the week. I have felt somewhat lost and unprepared for the past few days, but so far I have been able to manage and keep everything moving. We had a pretty cool experience with street finding this Saturday right by the church. Elder Lawless and I hadn't done it in a while, but I decided to do it so that Elder Swallow could get some practice. We parked the car and we didn't even get out of the parking lot before we stopped someone who was riding through on their bike. We talked to him and set up a church tour for this next week. About one minute later, someone honked at us and flipped a u-turn to stop and talk to us. The lady was a young women's president who told us about one of her young women that had just moved to Port Charlotte. The girl's parents are not members and she wanted us to teach her and possibly her parents. This all happened within a hundred yards of the church. A few hours later, we took the same route of travel and ran into two more people right outside of the church parking lot and set up church tours with them. It was so cool to have all of that happen right off the bat for us. I guess those are some of the blessings of training! I hope that this week will go well for both you and me! Love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
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| Elder Whaley with his son, Elder Swallow |
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| Elder Whaley and Elder Swallow |
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| Elder Whaley and Elder Swallow |
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Expecting a Son!!!!
8-18-14
Well, this week has been absolutely crazy with things both awesome and not awesome at all. Elder Lawless and I had an amazing week of work in which we taught 38 lessons. I think the highest I have ever done before this was 29. We worked very hard and we didn't have time for a lot of our meals this week. We just skipped them.
Hunter's baptism on Saturday and confirmation on Sunday, went very well. He was nervous for it at first, as was I, because I get nervous over everything, but when it came time for the actual baptism, both of us felt pretty good. I said the prayer just fine, but when he went down into the water, he missed plugging his nose, so he took in a big gulp of water. I felt very privileged to be able to do that for hunter and to exercise the priesthood. Following the baptism, we had a bunch of snacks and we got all of the leftovers.
Elder Lawless confirmed Hunter in Sacrament on Sunday and I got to stand in the circle. There was a couple of really cool things about this baptism. It was the first time that I have ever gotten to baptize someone. And, it was the exact same weekend as the only other baptism that I have had out here with the Arsenal's family last year. Their's was August 17th. I'm so excited to see Hunter grow in the gospel through!
Well, the very next day kind of ruined my excitement. On Sunday morning, we got transfer emails and of course it said that Elder Lawless was going home, but I didn't expect it to tell me that I am going to be staying and training a new missionary. Ever since I saw that email, I have been stressed out of my mind! I want to do all I can to be a good trainer, but I'm worried about being able to completely take over the work in this area and keep it going as well as it has been with Elder Lawless and I. All I can say is that I'm going to be working hard and praying A LOT!!
So this morning was the day that Elder Lawless left for Tampa, and he will be headed home tomorrow. We woke up, did our exercise and got everything ready to head out. We dropped his bike off to be shipped. Before we loaded all up and headed to meet his ride up to Tampa, I asked if he would give me a blessing because I hated to see him leaving me, and I am very worried about taking over and training. I felt a lot better after the blessing, but I am very sad that he is gone. We served together for 7 1/2 months. I hate having my companions leave me, and especially sending them home. I hope that I don't have to send anymore home, ever!
I hope that I can do well in taking over. I don't think that I have the same personal connection with people like Elder Lawless did, but I do know how to work hard, so I'm going to rely on the Lord and that.
Love you all!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Well, this week has been absolutely crazy with things both awesome and not awesome at all. Elder Lawless and I had an amazing week of work in which we taught 38 lessons. I think the highest I have ever done before this was 29. We worked very hard and we didn't have time for a lot of our meals this week. We just skipped them.
Hunter's baptism on Saturday and confirmation on Sunday, went very well. He was nervous for it at first, as was I, because I get nervous over everything, but when it came time for the actual baptism, both of us felt pretty good. I said the prayer just fine, but when he went down into the water, he missed plugging his nose, so he took in a big gulp of water. I felt very privileged to be able to do that for hunter and to exercise the priesthood. Following the baptism, we had a bunch of snacks and we got all of the leftovers.
Elder Lawless confirmed Hunter in Sacrament on Sunday and I got to stand in the circle. There was a couple of really cool things about this baptism. It was the first time that I have ever gotten to baptize someone. And, it was the exact same weekend as the only other baptism that I have had out here with the Arsenal's family last year. Their's was August 17th. I'm so excited to see Hunter grow in the gospel through!
Well, the very next day kind of ruined my excitement. On Sunday morning, we got transfer emails and of course it said that Elder Lawless was going home, but I didn't expect it to tell me that I am going to be staying and training a new missionary. Ever since I saw that email, I have been stressed out of my mind! I want to do all I can to be a good trainer, but I'm worried about being able to completely take over the work in this area and keep it going as well as it has been with Elder Lawless and I. All I can say is that I'm going to be working hard and praying A LOT!!
So this morning was the day that Elder Lawless left for Tampa, and he will be headed home tomorrow. We woke up, did our exercise and got everything ready to head out. We dropped his bike off to be shipped. Before we loaded all up and headed to meet his ride up to Tampa, I asked if he would give me a blessing because I hated to see him leaving me, and I am very worried about taking over and training. I felt a lot better after the blessing, but I am very sad that he is gone. We served together for 7 1/2 months. I hate having my companions leave me, and especially sending them home. I hope that I don't have to send anymore home, ever!
I hope that I can do well in taking over. I don't think that I have the same personal connection with people like Elder Lawless did, but I do know how to work hard, so I'm going to rely on the Lord and that.
Love you all!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Baptism set for 8/16!
8-11-14
My week has been pretty slow, but the highlight of this last week is that Hunter showed up to church, so that means that his baptism will follow through this Saturday, and I will get to baptize him!!!! I'm super excited for that. Quintyn's baptism will have to be pushed back for a little bit, but I think it will still happen eventually. He didn't show up to church yesterday and the rule is that they have to be at church the Sunday before their baptism. We have transfer calls this next Thursday and we will find out Sunday if I am staying or leaving. I probably won't get to do emails this next week because we have to travel up to Tampa on Monday to take Elder Lawless to the mission home and he will fly home Tuesday. So, from Monday to Thursday, I will be staying with some other companionship until I get my new companion. For Elder Lawless' last week, we are working hard and I am doing my best to make sure that he doesn't get any trunkier-haha. I hope that Dad does well this week and I will talk to you in two weeks! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
My week has been pretty slow, but the highlight of this last week is that Hunter showed up to church, so that means that his baptism will follow through this Saturday, and I will get to baptize him!!!! I'm super excited for that. Quintyn's baptism will have to be pushed back for a little bit, but I think it will still happen eventually. He didn't show up to church yesterday and the rule is that they have to be at church the Sunday before their baptism. We have transfer calls this next Thursday and we will find out Sunday if I am staying or leaving. I probably won't get to do emails this next week because we have to travel up to Tampa on Monday to take Elder Lawless to the mission home and he will fly home Tuesday. So, from Monday to Thursday, I will be staying with some other companionship until I get my new companion. For Elder Lawless' last week, we are working hard and I am doing my best to make sure that he doesn't get any trunkier-haha. I hope that Dad does well this week and I will talk to you in two weeks! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Pray for Investigators!
8-4-14
Well, I have two more weeks with Elder Lawless before he goes home and I'm guessing that I will have to stay here for at least one more transfer with a new companion so he can learn the area. I will be sending a check that my last companion sent for me to ship his bike home. I didn't send it out earlier because all of my envelopes got destroyed by water, so I had nothing to send it in. A bunch of gospel books and material that I had in a bin got ruined because I had my emergency water int he same bin and it broke and leaked all over, and I didn't know about it. Everything got water logged and I had to throw a bunch of it away. Luckily, everything that got ruined was something that I can look up on the gospel library app and all of the other things like pictures and DVDs were dry and fine. The water must have been sitting in there for a while because it smelled pretty bad when I opened the lid. i tried to dry it all out on the back patio, but some things weren't salvageable.
This week was slow for work because we had a lot of people cancel and we had some big meetings that took away from that time, as well. I would appreciate if you all would pray for two of our investigators who are preparing for baptism next weekend not he 16th. Their names are Quintyn and Hunter. They are progressing well, and we just need everything to work out leading to their baptisms.
I hope that this next week goes well for you and that you will be able to handle all that comes at you! Love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Well, I have two more weeks with Elder Lawless before he goes home and I'm guessing that I will have to stay here for at least one more transfer with a new companion so he can learn the area. I will be sending a check that my last companion sent for me to ship his bike home. I didn't send it out earlier because all of my envelopes got destroyed by water, so I had nothing to send it in. A bunch of gospel books and material that I had in a bin got ruined because I had my emergency water int he same bin and it broke and leaked all over, and I didn't know about it. Everything got water logged and I had to throw a bunch of it away. Luckily, everything that got ruined was something that I can look up on the gospel library app and all of the other things like pictures and DVDs were dry and fine. The water must have been sitting in there for a while because it smelled pretty bad when I opened the lid. i tried to dry it all out on the back patio, but some things weren't salvageable.
This week was slow for work because we had a lot of people cancel and we had some big meetings that took away from that time, as well. I would appreciate if you all would pray for two of our investigators who are preparing for baptism next weekend not he 16th. Their names are Quintyn and Hunter. They are progressing well, and we just need everything to work out leading to their baptisms.
I hope that this next week goes well for you and that you will be able to handle all that comes at you! Love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
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| Elder Whaley and Elder Lawless teaching an investigator |
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Looking Forward to Baptisms!
7-28-14
Ya, I got the package right after emails last Monday! Thanks for making sure that got to me. (Insanity DVDs). We've been using it everyday and it's been really helping me wake up more in the mornings. That's for sure. We had four investigators at church again this last week and a few less active members, as well. We have three of them who are committed to baptism on August 16th and I think they will make it. Their names are Harry, Quintyn, and Hunter. Please keep them in your prayers.
How is Dad doing on the recommendations by the doctor? Well, sorry it's so short. Have a great week! Love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Ya, I got the package right after emails last Monday! Thanks for making sure that got to me. (Insanity DVDs). We've been using it everyday and it's been really helping me wake up more in the mornings. That's for sure. We had four investigators at church again this last week and a few less active members, as well. We have three of them who are committed to baptism on August 16th and I think they will make it. Their names are Harry, Quintyn, and Hunter. Please keep them in your prayers.
How is Dad doing on the recommendations by the doctor? Well, sorry it's so short. Have a great week! Love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
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| Lunch time at Zone Conference |
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| Car inspection at Zone Conference |
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| Elder Whaley and Elder Lawless |
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Journal Entry
7-20-14
Sorry, I didn't email at all this last week. Our p-day was taken up by a bunch of other stuff and we didn't have any time left to do it. I can't send emails out any other day of the week. I wish I could have been there to see all of that flooding in Rexburg. Even though it sounds like a whole lot of damage, I think it would have been fun to play in the water.
Anyway, I thought instead of summarizing everything this week, I would let you read last night's journal entry. It was a pretty great day! Love you!!
Here's the journal entry:
BEST SUNDAY EVER!!!!! We had an amazing week that lead up to this perfect day! After Ward Council this morning, we drove to Quintyn B.'s to wake him up and give him a ride to church. We did the same thing with Charlie and Hunter M. As a result, they both came. Oh Ya!! Don H. and Angela L. showed up, as well. So we had 4 investigators at church today. While I was greeting people at the door with Bro. Vick, one of the sisters' investigators, Peggy, walked out right in front of us on the main walkway where everyone was coming and started smoking a cigarette. As she was walking out she said, "I still have 5 minutes before church starts." It was kind of funny, but then I had to hurry and ask her to smoke on the side of the building away from everyone. All of the church meetings were great and we got a referral from the Vanscoyks. His name is Tyler A. and he works for them. He has been asking them a lot of questions about the church. So, we stopped by and gave him a B.O.M. and it turned into a 2-hour lesson where we talked a lot about the Book and we taught him the entire Plan of Salvation. It was sick! At the end of our day, we looked at all of our weekly goals and saw that we reached EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!!! Neither of us have had that happen, and I don't know if that will happen again! I hope so. We got 26 lessons!!!!
Sorry, I didn't email at all this last week. Our p-day was taken up by a bunch of other stuff and we didn't have any time left to do it. I can't send emails out any other day of the week. I wish I could have been there to see all of that flooding in Rexburg. Even though it sounds like a whole lot of damage, I think it would have been fun to play in the water.
Anyway, I thought instead of summarizing everything this week, I would let you read last night's journal entry. It was a pretty great day! Love you!!
Here's the journal entry:
BEST SUNDAY EVER!!!!! We had an amazing week that lead up to this perfect day! After Ward Council this morning, we drove to Quintyn B.'s to wake him up and give him a ride to church. We did the same thing with Charlie and Hunter M. As a result, they both came. Oh Ya!! Don H. and Angela L. showed up, as well. So we had 4 investigators at church today. While I was greeting people at the door with Bro. Vick, one of the sisters' investigators, Peggy, walked out right in front of us on the main walkway where everyone was coming and started smoking a cigarette. As she was walking out she said, "I still have 5 minutes before church starts." It was kind of funny, but then I had to hurry and ask her to smoke on the side of the building away from everyone. All of the church meetings were great and we got a referral from the Vanscoyks. His name is Tyler A. and he works for them. He has been asking them a lot of questions about the church. So, we stopped by and gave him a B.O.M. and it turned into a 2-hour lesson where we talked a lot about the Book and we taught him the entire Plan of Salvation. It was sick! At the end of our day, we looked at all of our weekly goals and saw that we reached EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!!! Neither of us have had that happen, and I don't know if that will happen again! I hope so. We got 26 lessons!!!!
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| Austin's actual Journal Entry (written in his tiny handwriting) |
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Not Transferring and Seeing Great things come of Serving Others!
7-7-14
No. I'm not transferring. I'm staying here. So, that means I will be killing off Elder Lawless and then I don't know what will happen. That might mean that I will be here for at least one more transfer so that I can show another elder the area before I leave. Elder Lawless is staying with me, and so are both of the sister missionaries in the ward. No changes. It will be a lot different next transfer, though.
That's good that they got all of the information for Dad so quickly. Hopefully, they get some good results back soon.
This week was a little different for us. We did a lot of service moving people, and some good things came from some of the move. We helped move a part member family and the dad has been less active for 19 years and he came to church yesterday because he said that our service and example reminded him what he loved about the church when he first joined. It was really awesome to see him at church. Service took up a good chunk of our week, and things will be the same for the next few weeks. I did not eat very healthy at all this week, but I didn't have to make anything for meals either. Since we did a bunch of service this week, everyone always fed us pizza and pop. Then, we got all of the leftovers from it and a few members bought us dinner throughout the week at fast food restaurants. This Saturday we also got the leftover of some big birthday party they held in the church gym. So, we have a bunch of unhealthy food, but it's saving us on the cost of groceries. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
No. I'm not transferring. I'm staying here. So, that means I will be killing off Elder Lawless and then I don't know what will happen. That might mean that I will be here for at least one more transfer so that I can show another elder the area before I leave. Elder Lawless is staying with me, and so are both of the sister missionaries in the ward. No changes. It will be a lot different next transfer, though.
That's good that they got all of the information for Dad so quickly. Hopefully, they get some good results back soon.
This week was a little different for us. We did a lot of service moving people, and some good things came from some of the move. We helped move a part member family and the dad has been less active for 19 years and he came to church yesterday because he said that our service and example reminded him what he loved about the church when he first joined. It was really awesome to see him at church. Service took up a good chunk of our week, and things will be the same for the next few weeks. I did not eat very healthy at all this week, but I didn't have to make anything for meals either. Since we did a bunch of service this week, everyone always fed us pizza and pop. Then, we got all of the leftovers from it and a few members bought us dinner throughout the week at fast food restaurants. This Saturday we also got the leftover of some big birthday party they held in the church gym. So, we have a bunch of unhealthy food, but it's saving us on the cost of groceries. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Living the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Absolute Best Solution to any Problem!
6-30-14
My hump day was alright. It felt like any other day in the mission. We were too busy to really celebrate or do anything. I still need to take some pictures of the things that you sent me. Thank you for all of it, though. Elder Lawless and I ate through all of the Tootie-Frooties in the first day! We don't have any traditions for it. They won't let us burn anything either.
Right now it feels like these past few weeks have been super slow because I was nearing the year mark, but there have been a few things that I've really seen and learned over this last year. The first thing is when you work hard, you're happy! You're tired, but happy! The second BIG thing is living the gospel of Jesus Christ is the absolute best solution to any problem you will ever deal with. I've met so many people and members who either don't have the gospel or don't live it as they should, and they are in bad circumstances and they are unhappy. Some of them realize it and they do something about it, and it's great to see the atonement work in their life, but there are those who have an extremely difficult time understanding that the simple principles of the gospel can help them and they turn away from it. The best thing that you can do is to make sure that your testimony is centered in Jesus Christ and that you have a solid foundation of scripture study, prayer, and church. Everything else is built upon that foundation.
I don't know what will happen this transfer. I've been here for four transfers, but I could be here for another 1 or 2. I'm guessing that I might leave, which would kind of be nice, since I've been here for so long, but I also don't want to yet because this is an amazing area! We have had great work and we actually have 3 baptismal dates set with investigators for the month of July and one in August. If everything was to go through as planned, we would have 6 baptisms this next transfer. But, we will see what happens. We have calls for transfers this Saturday, so I will let you know next week. We still haven't met with that one family yet, but they are just working out some family things. We should start teaching them again in a week or two. One of the members is in contact with them frequently and she said that they are doing well.
I'm glad to hear that you are still learning new things during your personal studies and that you are all doing family prayer. Keep it up and work on doing study as a family. I hope that you all travel down to Utah safely and that everything goes as planned with all of the tests for Dad. Love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
P.S. I love the book of Mormon quote book that you all sent me! Thanks so much!
My hump day was alright. It felt like any other day in the mission. We were too busy to really celebrate or do anything. I still need to take some pictures of the things that you sent me. Thank you for all of it, though. Elder Lawless and I ate through all of the Tootie-Frooties in the first day! We don't have any traditions for it. They won't let us burn anything either.
Right now it feels like these past few weeks have been super slow because I was nearing the year mark, but there have been a few things that I've really seen and learned over this last year. The first thing is when you work hard, you're happy! You're tired, but happy! The second BIG thing is living the gospel of Jesus Christ is the absolute best solution to any problem you will ever deal with. I've met so many people and members who either don't have the gospel or don't live it as they should, and they are in bad circumstances and they are unhappy. Some of them realize it and they do something about it, and it's great to see the atonement work in their life, but there are those who have an extremely difficult time understanding that the simple principles of the gospel can help them and they turn away from it. The best thing that you can do is to make sure that your testimony is centered in Jesus Christ and that you have a solid foundation of scripture study, prayer, and church. Everything else is built upon that foundation.
I don't know what will happen this transfer. I've been here for four transfers, but I could be here for another 1 or 2. I'm guessing that I might leave, which would kind of be nice, since I've been here for so long, but I also don't want to yet because this is an amazing area! We have had great work and we actually have 3 baptismal dates set with investigators for the month of July and one in August. If everything was to go through as planned, we would have 6 baptisms this next transfer. But, we will see what happens. We have calls for transfers this Saturday, so I will let you know next week. We still haven't met with that one family yet, but they are just working out some family things. We should start teaching them again in a week or two. One of the members is in contact with them frequently and she said that they are doing well.
I'm glad to hear that you are still learning new things during your personal studies and that you are all doing family prayer. Keep it up and work on doing study as a family. I hope that you all travel down to Utah safely and that everything goes as planned with all of the tests for Dad. Love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
P.S. I love the book of Mormon quote book that you all sent me! Thanks so much!
Friday, June 27, 2014
Hump Dayyyyy!!!!!!!!
6-23-14
It's weird to think that I'm at a year already! It's all felt slow, but fast, as well. At times I feel like I've learned so much, and then at other times I feel like I don't know hardly enough. We get all of the Ensigns on our iPads through the gospel library app., so don't worry about sending me one. I haven't had any really different or exciting experiences for the last week or so. The baptism date that we had set for the 28th is postponed for now because the family had to take care of some personal issues, but I think that we are going to continue working with them this next week and set a new date for them. We have quite a few people that we are teaching, but not all of them are progressing. We have about five that are actually keeping commitments and are working towards baptism in the future. We have transfer calls coming up on July 5th and I don't know if I will stay or go or if Elder Lawless will stay or go either. He has one more transfer left till he is done, so we will see what happens.
It sound like that was a pretty good talk that Logan Jacobsen gave at his homecoming. When we had our Zone Conference with Elder Clarke, Sister Cusick talked a lot about the language of prayer and how we can show greater respect for Heavenly Father as we offer our prayers. She gave us a few points.
1- Always use the correct words such as: thee, thou, thy, and thine.
2- Don't say Heavenly Father's name multiple times during a prayer. It's only needed at the
beginning. Nowhere else.
3- When praying in a group, make sure to say "we" and not "I".
4- When you close your prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, do it slowly.
I have been implementing these things in my prayers and it has helped make them more meaningful and not so repetitious. Something else that she challenged us to do is to have a prayer of gratitude where we only pray to thank Heavenly Father for the things we have received. I usually try to do this every Sunday and it helps, as well. That sounds like a really good book that you got. How has your reading in the scriptures been going for yourself and for the family? I hope that you are all still doing family prayer and scripture study.
It's good to hear that Dad is slowly getting better, and I hope that they're able to find some insights as to what's going on with him.
Thank you for all that you do and for letting me know how things are going at home. Sorry, I don't have any inspiring stories at the moment, but I will let you know as they come. Thank you for the year mark wish and I will be praying for all of you. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
It's weird to think that I'm at a year already! It's all felt slow, but fast, as well. At times I feel like I've learned so much, and then at other times I feel like I don't know hardly enough. We get all of the Ensigns on our iPads through the gospel library app., so don't worry about sending me one. I haven't had any really different or exciting experiences for the last week or so. The baptism date that we had set for the 28th is postponed for now because the family had to take care of some personal issues, but I think that we are going to continue working with them this next week and set a new date for them. We have quite a few people that we are teaching, but not all of them are progressing. We have about five that are actually keeping commitments and are working towards baptism in the future. We have transfer calls coming up on July 5th and I don't know if I will stay or go or if Elder Lawless will stay or go either. He has one more transfer left till he is done, so we will see what happens.
It sound like that was a pretty good talk that Logan Jacobsen gave at his homecoming. When we had our Zone Conference with Elder Clarke, Sister Cusick talked a lot about the language of prayer and how we can show greater respect for Heavenly Father as we offer our prayers. She gave us a few points.
1- Always use the correct words such as: thee, thou, thy, and thine.
2- Don't say Heavenly Father's name multiple times during a prayer. It's only needed at the
beginning. Nowhere else.
3- When praying in a group, make sure to say "we" and not "I".
4- When you close your prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, do it slowly.
I have been implementing these things in my prayers and it has helped make them more meaningful and not so repetitious. Something else that she challenged us to do is to have a prayer of gratitude where we only pray to thank Heavenly Father for the things we have received. I usually try to do this every Sunday and it helps, as well. That sounds like a really good book that you got. How has your reading in the scriptures been going for yourself and for the family? I hope that you are all still doing family prayer and scripture study.
It's good to hear that Dad is slowly getting better, and I hope that they're able to find some insights as to what's going on with him.
Thank you for all that you do and for letting me know how things are going at home. Sorry, I don't have any inspiring stories at the moment, but I will let you know as they come. Thank you for the year mark wish and I will be praying for all of you. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Plugging along!
6-16-14
Haha-ya, we have a tiwi in our car. (I had told him about the Sister missionaries coming to visit us and they had to leave quickly because they have a tiwi in their car that tells what time they get in and if they're speeding, etc.). Our mission was one of the first ones to pilot it when they first came out. They are annoying, but ours is broken right now, so it won't bust us for things like that. (Getting in a little late) That's too bad that Dad didn't get to go on trek with the girls, but I guess it was the smart thing to do considering the state he is in. At least both of you still got to do your own camping for a few days at the cabin and get away!
I wasn't the only one that got to visit with Elder Clarke. He just picked like 3 or 4 of us from the crowd and had us meet with him. It was great, though. That was definitely the highlight of this week, though, so I don't have any other interesting stories for the week. Sorry. Thank you for being such a great mother and supporting me and sending me things! LOVE YOU!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Haha-ya, we have a tiwi in our car. (I had told him about the Sister missionaries coming to visit us and they had to leave quickly because they have a tiwi in their car that tells what time they get in and if they're speeding, etc.). Our mission was one of the first ones to pilot it when they first came out. They are annoying, but ours is broken right now, so it won't bust us for things like that. (Getting in a little late) That's too bad that Dad didn't get to go on trek with the girls, but I guess it was the smart thing to do considering the state he is in. At least both of you still got to do your own camping for a few days at the cabin and get away!
I wasn't the only one that got to visit with Elder Clarke. He just picked like 3 or 4 of us from the crowd and had us meet with him. It was great, though. That was definitely the highlight of this week, though, so I don't have any other interesting stories for the week. Sorry. Thank you for being such a great mother and supporting me and sending me things! LOVE YOU!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Personal Visit with a General Authority-Great Birthday Present!
6-9-14
Thank you so much for the birthday package! It was great! I did take pictures, so I'll have to get them to you! We didn't do much of a party with the things that you guys sent to me, but it was still a great day! I did get two letters from Grandma and Grandpa, which was really nice of them! We had 7 investigators show up to church and we actually set a baptismal date for one of them this week on the 28th of this month. It is a family of 4 and they absolutely love everything about the church. They are all excited about baptism and the dad is already asking about getting the priesthood. After church, later that evening, we went over to one of the member's homes to do a family home evening with the family who has a baptismal date, and we played a Bible/Gospel trivia game. Everyone got really into it and they enjoyed it! It was a great day!
This week was also exhausting, too. We went on two exchanges in a row. I stayed in the area for the first one and we had 6 lessons that day. That was also the day that we set the baptismal date for the family. The next day, right after district meeting, we went on the second exchange and I went with one of our Zone leaders to their area and it was kind of a slow day, but we actually did some tracting for an hour or so. That was fun to do again. That night, one of their investigators took us out to Chili's and he let us order whatever we wanted. I got some shrimp tacos. We taught him the Plan of Salvation with a puzzle that I have and he loved it.
Yesterday, we had a big Zone Conference that lasted 6 hours and there was a General Authority, Elder Clarke, who gave most of the training. He is actually from Rexburg, Idaho, so when we all got to shake his hand and introduce ourselves, I told him that I was from Sugar City. He said, "Me too. Don't you dare misrepresent Idaho! Don't do it!" It was funny. I told him that I wouldn't. His wife is from Twin Falls. President and Sister Cusick gave talks as well as Sister Clarke. Elder Clarke did about 3 hours of the training, and it was hilarious! He is such a funny guy. He talked about so many good things and now I have a list of things that I am going to try and do better on in the work. Towards the very end of the meeting, right before we were going to start the hymn, President Cusick came down to me and told me to stay after the meeting because Elder Clarke wanted to visit with me. That was all he said, and he was very serious when he said it. I was so scared and nervous because he didn't tell me why he wanted to meet with me. When we finished and got out in the hall, President waved me over to him and pointed me to the room where Elder Clarke was waiting. He still didn't tell me why I was meeting with him and I was pretty much shaking at this point. When I got int he room Elder Clarke asked me to start our visit with a prayer and I could barely think about what to say. Once we started talking, I was super relieved because he just was asking me about my mission, how I like it, what I felt was the hardest thing about it, and what I learned in the Zone Conference that day. Then he asked me about my family and about all of you individually and what Dad did for work and stuff. Then, we just started talking about Rexburg and he was wondering if I knew certain people there. Apparently, Lexi Belnap is his granddaughter and he is also related to the Larsen family. After a few minutes, he asked if I had any questions for him and I couldn't think of any right then. So I just asked him about where he grew up in Rexburg, but I couldn't think about anything else. I was frustrated because after I left, I had a bunch of questions that I wanted to ask him. Who knows, maybe I will get to see him again. It was really cool. He is now my favorite General Authority.
I hope that you have a great week. How is your health doing, Dad? Love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Thank you so much for the birthday package! It was great! I did take pictures, so I'll have to get them to you! We didn't do much of a party with the things that you guys sent to me, but it was still a great day! I did get two letters from Grandma and Grandpa, which was really nice of them! We had 7 investigators show up to church and we actually set a baptismal date for one of them this week on the 28th of this month. It is a family of 4 and they absolutely love everything about the church. They are all excited about baptism and the dad is already asking about getting the priesthood. After church, later that evening, we went over to one of the member's homes to do a family home evening with the family who has a baptismal date, and we played a Bible/Gospel trivia game. Everyone got really into it and they enjoyed it! It was a great day!
This week was also exhausting, too. We went on two exchanges in a row. I stayed in the area for the first one and we had 6 lessons that day. That was also the day that we set the baptismal date for the family. The next day, right after district meeting, we went on the second exchange and I went with one of our Zone leaders to their area and it was kind of a slow day, but we actually did some tracting for an hour or so. That was fun to do again. That night, one of their investigators took us out to Chili's and he let us order whatever we wanted. I got some shrimp tacos. We taught him the Plan of Salvation with a puzzle that I have and he loved it.
Yesterday, we had a big Zone Conference that lasted 6 hours and there was a General Authority, Elder Clarke, who gave most of the training. He is actually from Rexburg, Idaho, so when we all got to shake his hand and introduce ourselves, I told him that I was from Sugar City. He said, "Me too. Don't you dare misrepresent Idaho! Don't do it!" It was funny. I told him that I wouldn't. His wife is from Twin Falls. President and Sister Cusick gave talks as well as Sister Clarke. Elder Clarke did about 3 hours of the training, and it was hilarious! He is such a funny guy. He talked about so many good things and now I have a list of things that I am going to try and do better on in the work. Towards the very end of the meeting, right before we were going to start the hymn, President Cusick came down to me and told me to stay after the meeting because Elder Clarke wanted to visit with me. That was all he said, and he was very serious when he said it. I was so scared and nervous because he didn't tell me why he wanted to meet with me. When we finished and got out in the hall, President waved me over to him and pointed me to the room where Elder Clarke was waiting. He still didn't tell me why I was meeting with him and I was pretty much shaking at this point. When I got int he room Elder Clarke asked me to start our visit with a prayer and I could barely think about what to say. Once we started talking, I was super relieved because he just was asking me about my mission, how I like it, what I felt was the hardest thing about it, and what I learned in the Zone Conference that day. Then he asked me about my family and about all of you individually and what Dad did for work and stuff. Then, we just started talking about Rexburg and he was wondering if I knew certain people there. Apparently, Lexi Belnap is his granddaughter and he is also related to the Larsen family. After a few minutes, he asked if I had any questions for him and I couldn't think of any right then. So I just asked him about where he grew up in Rexburg, but I couldn't think about anything else. I was frustrated because after I left, I had a bunch of questions that I wanted to ask him. Who knows, maybe I will get to see him again. It was really cool. He is now my favorite General Authority.
I hope that you have a great week. How is your health doing, Dad? Love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Loving the Rain!
6-2-14
Mom, I haven't gotten the birthday package yet, but it might be here in the next day or two. Hopefully, you got your birthday card that I sent you a few days ago. How is Dad doing? There is a guy in our ward that we have been visiting and in the past two months he has gone from having no feeling in his legs and no movement with them, to being able to extend and move them and now he has not pain in them. The only thing that he has done is swim in his pool everyday and see a chiropractor. So, help Dad just be healthier if you can.
This last week was pretty slow, but we still reached our goal of 20 lessons. It rained pretty hard everyday this week and it was great! I love the rain! We are now officially in hurricane season so it's going to be raining a lot more. Nothing really exciting happened this last week, but this week is going to be crazy. We are going to be doing two exchanges. One with someone in our district and then another one the next day with our zone leaders. I've never really liked exchanges, but I guess they are good learning experiences. I hope that Dad gets better soon, and I hope that you enjoy being out of school. I love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Mom, I haven't gotten the birthday package yet, but it might be here in the next day or two. Hopefully, you got your birthday card that I sent you a few days ago. How is Dad doing? There is a guy in our ward that we have been visiting and in the past two months he has gone from having no feeling in his legs and no movement with them, to being able to extend and move them and now he has not pain in them. The only thing that he has done is swim in his pool everyday and see a chiropractor. So, help Dad just be healthier if you can.
This last week was pretty slow, but we still reached our goal of 20 lessons. It rained pretty hard everyday this week and it was great! I love the rain! We are now officially in hurricane season so it's going to be raining a lot more. Nothing really exciting happened this last week, but this week is going to be crazy. We are going to be doing two exchanges. One with someone in our district and then another one the next day with our zone leaders. I've never really liked exchanges, but I guess they are good learning experiences. I hope that Dad gets better soon, and I hope that you enjoy being out of school. I love you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
11 Months Out!
5-26-14
This week has been pretty good. We just had transfer calls Saturday and I will be staying here with Elder Lawless. Yay! I'm glad. That way I don't have to have my birthday in a brand new area. This last week has been pretty exhausting because we went on 3 splits and we had a lot of lessons, which was great! There was also a baptism this weekend that the sisters in the ward had and we helped out with that. We also got to be in the confirmation circle on Sunday. We had two investigators show up to church and it was a little strange at first. They had all of the seminary students that were graduating speak and they were suppose to each give 3 minute talks, but they were all about 4 seconds long. The last person that spoke, though was great. He is about to put in his papers for a mission and he did a really good job. He talked about his seminary experience and bore his testimony of his favorite scripture Helaman 5:12. I was kind of scared that bishop was going to have Elder Lawless and I fill in the last 15 minutes of the meeting, but he had the seminary teacher do it and he talked about how we are able to receive personal revelation. It was really good.
For the past week, we have been eating some pretty boring food because we ran through our funds this month pretty quickly. Luckily a member gave us a big box of food yesterday, so that should last us till the beginning of this next month.
Also, lately we have had the opportunity to give members and others blessings a lot. Almost on a daily basis. The oil vial that you guys gave me was starting to leak because the rubber seal was breaking. A member gave me one of his, so that was nice. A lot of great things have been happening.
Something else that happened that was funny and kind of stunk at the same time is that while we were in our apartment last night, we were throwing around a frisbee and trying a bunch of trick throws and Elder Lawless threw the frisbee into one of the light fixtures and shattered it all over the place. It was pretty funny, but now we have to go replace it. Haha.
I can believe that I have been out that long, but it feels weird. It feels like I'm just stuck in the middle, like I've been out for a while and I still have a long time left, but it also feels like it's not that much longer. It's weird. I'm sure that it will start flying by once I pass my year mark.
I love this area and I love the things that I am learning.
I hope that you have a good week and I'll talk to you later. Love you, bye!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
This week has been pretty good. We just had transfer calls Saturday and I will be staying here with Elder Lawless. Yay! I'm glad. That way I don't have to have my birthday in a brand new area. This last week has been pretty exhausting because we went on 3 splits and we had a lot of lessons, which was great! There was also a baptism this weekend that the sisters in the ward had and we helped out with that. We also got to be in the confirmation circle on Sunday. We had two investigators show up to church and it was a little strange at first. They had all of the seminary students that were graduating speak and they were suppose to each give 3 minute talks, but they were all about 4 seconds long. The last person that spoke, though was great. He is about to put in his papers for a mission and he did a really good job. He talked about his seminary experience and bore his testimony of his favorite scripture Helaman 5:12. I was kind of scared that bishop was going to have Elder Lawless and I fill in the last 15 minutes of the meeting, but he had the seminary teacher do it and he talked about how we are able to receive personal revelation. It was really good.
For the past week, we have been eating some pretty boring food because we ran through our funds this month pretty quickly. Luckily a member gave us a big box of food yesterday, so that should last us till the beginning of this next month.
Also, lately we have had the opportunity to give members and others blessings a lot. Almost on a daily basis. The oil vial that you guys gave me was starting to leak because the rubber seal was breaking. A member gave me one of his, so that was nice. A lot of great things have been happening.
Something else that happened that was funny and kind of stunk at the same time is that while we were in our apartment last night, we were throwing around a frisbee and trying a bunch of trick throws and Elder Lawless threw the frisbee into one of the light fixtures and shattered it all over the place. It was pretty funny, but now we have to go replace it. Haha.
I can believe that I have been out that long, but it feels weird. It feels like I'm just stuck in the middle, like I've been out for a while and I still have a long time left, but it also feels like it's not that much longer. It's weird. I'm sure that it will start flying by once I pass my year mark.
I love this area and I love the things that I am learning.
I hope that you have a good week and I'll talk to you later. Love you, bye!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Wise Words from Elder Whaley
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
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 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
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Companion Becoming a Woman! Haha!
4-14-14
Dad, that is an awesome story. It is definitely scary to think about how to approach someone and offer them something from the church, but that is something that just comes with practice, which I'm sure you know from your mission. That is really great that you handed the Book of Mormon to that lady. I can understand why the sisters weren't as excited when you told them that it was out of their area. That usually seems to happen a lot. We find a lot of people that are interested in learning, but they always end up being out of our boundaries. But, I've never cared so much, because as long as someone teaches them, then I'm happy with that. Now, you'll just have to follow up with her and ask her how her daughter like having her own copy next time you see her. This last Wednesday I started reading in the Book of Mormon from the beginning and I am going to read the whole thing once through because I've done it before, but not since I've been out on my mission. I've read large pieces of it here and there, but not front to back. I am going to try and finish it in 25 days. Right now I am at the end of 2 Nephi. How are your studies going? Are you getting a lot from them?
This week was a little slower for us, but we still had a lot of really great lessons. Our ward is getting more involved in missionary work and things are slowly starting to click more. The one thing that happened last week that I wanted to tell you has to do with working out. After emails last week, Elder Lawless wanted to go to a nutrition shop by our house to see if they had any good protein shakes that he could get. So, we went in and Elder Lawless talked to the guy working there and told him that he wanted a protein shake that would help him bulk up. The guy asked him what he had been taking and Elder Lawless pointed to a bottle that they had on one of the bottom shelves and told him that it was "that one". The worker started laughing and said, "You know that stuff is for women right?" Apparently, the protein Elder Lawless was taking was soy based and it was meant to boost estrogen levels. Haha! So, all he has been doing for the past month is becoming a woman! Hahaha! He was super upset when he found that out. But after that, the guy showed him another good shake and he ended up buying that. The whole thing was super funny! I still tease him about his estrogen shake. Well, I hope that everything goes well this week for you and thank you for the letters you send me! I really appreciate those! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Dad, that is an awesome story. It is definitely scary to think about how to approach someone and offer them something from the church, but that is something that just comes with practice, which I'm sure you know from your mission. That is really great that you handed the Book of Mormon to that lady. I can understand why the sisters weren't as excited when you told them that it was out of their area. That usually seems to happen a lot. We find a lot of people that are interested in learning, but they always end up being out of our boundaries. But, I've never cared so much, because as long as someone teaches them, then I'm happy with that. Now, you'll just have to follow up with her and ask her how her daughter like having her own copy next time you see her. This last Wednesday I started reading in the Book of Mormon from the beginning and I am going to read the whole thing once through because I've done it before, but not since I've been out on my mission. I've read large pieces of it here and there, but not front to back. I am going to try and finish it in 25 days. Right now I am at the end of 2 Nephi. How are your studies going? Are you getting a lot from them?
This week was a little slower for us, but we still had a lot of really great lessons. Our ward is getting more involved in missionary work and things are slowly starting to click more. The one thing that happened last week that I wanted to tell you has to do with working out. After emails last week, Elder Lawless wanted to go to a nutrition shop by our house to see if they had any good protein shakes that he could get. So, we went in and Elder Lawless talked to the guy working there and told him that he wanted a protein shake that would help him bulk up. The guy asked him what he had been taking and Elder Lawless pointed to a bottle that they had on one of the bottom shelves and told him that it was "that one". The worker started laughing and said, "You know that stuff is for women right?" Apparently, the protein Elder Lawless was taking was soy based and it was meant to boost estrogen levels. Haha! So, all he has been doing for the past month is becoming a woman! Hahaha! He was super upset when he found that out. But after that, the guy showed him another good shake and he ended up buying that. The whole thing was super funny! I still tease him about his estrogen shake. Well, I hope that everything goes well this week for you and thank you for the letters you send me! I really appreciate those! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Loved General Conference
4-7-14
You asked about going to the Ft. Lauderdale open house. No, we don't get to go because it is just barely outside the boundaries of our mission. I did get to watch all of General Conference, and I loved it! It seemed too short to me, though. I wish it would last the entire week. :)
This was another great week of work. We didn't get as much done as we did last week, but it was still good. We invited everyone we talked to and taught to watch General Conference, so hopefully they did. One of our investigators, Don, came for the last session of General Conference, and he said that he thought it was very interesting. He says that about everything. But, I thought that all of the talks were great for him to hear, because they all focused on the basics and foundation of the Gospel and the things that we have taught him. So, hopefully, it had a good influence on him. I also like Elder M. Russell Ballard's talk and how he invited every member to get a copy of Preach My Gospel and to make it a part of their studies. I'm excited for you all to take on the challenge that the sister missionaries gave you. Having members with us as missionaries is so powerful and important in lessons and fellowshipping those we teach. It's a great opportunity to be involved in the work. I honestly don't know how that referral was made, because I didn't do it. I guess it was just suppose to happen so that you all now have the opportunity and challenge to hand out the Book of Mormon and share the Gospel with someone. I'll be praying for you all to find someone to share it with, so be attentive, and take the opportunity when it arises. I will be waiting to hear what you guys have found in the future. I will continue to pray for you guys, and thank you for your support and prayers, as well. I love you and I hope that this week goes well for you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
You asked about going to the Ft. Lauderdale open house. No, we don't get to go because it is just barely outside the boundaries of our mission. I did get to watch all of General Conference, and I loved it! It seemed too short to me, though. I wish it would last the entire week. :)
This was another great week of work. We didn't get as much done as we did last week, but it was still good. We invited everyone we talked to and taught to watch General Conference, so hopefully they did. One of our investigators, Don, came for the last session of General Conference, and he said that he thought it was very interesting. He says that about everything. But, I thought that all of the talks were great for him to hear, because they all focused on the basics and foundation of the Gospel and the things that we have taught him. So, hopefully, it had a good influence on him. I also like Elder M. Russell Ballard's talk and how he invited every member to get a copy of Preach My Gospel and to make it a part of their studies. I'm excited for you all to take on the challenge that the sister missionaries gave you. Having members with us as missionaries is so powerful and important in lessons and fellowshipping those we teach. It's a great opportunity to be involved in the work. I honestly don't know how that referral was made, because I didn't do it. I guess it was just suppose to happen so that you all now have the opportunity and challenge to hand out the Book of Mormon and share the Gospel with someone. I'll be praying for you all to find someone to share it with, so be attentive, and take the opportunity when it arises. I will be waiting to hear what you guys have found in the future. I will continue to pray for you guys, and thank you for your support and prayers, as well. I love you and I hope that this week goes well for you!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Loving his area!!!!
3-31-14
Luckies!!!! I want snow!!!!!! Appreciate it while it is there. Yep, I served around Sister Partridge for about 3 or so months, I think. She is awesome! Hopefully, things go well for her at home and she can get back out here soon. (This is a Sister that went home with some heart problems) So it sounds like you had a good meeting yesterday. We deal with people asking us about the church's stance on Gays a lot! We just tell them that we believe that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, and that we are to follow the commandments of God. We aren't against those who are pro-gay, but just like another sin like breaking the law of chastity, we believe that everyone has the free agency to choose for themselves between right and wrong. Those that claim to have no control over their sexual orientation, and were born that way, is not true. It is a temptation or trial that is given to them in life, and just like any other temptation, they are to put off the natural man and choose right. Usually people who ask us about this question just want to cause problems and argue, so they just try and anti whatever we tell them, so we usually just leave it at that.
You asked me if I need anything. The only thing I'd like right now is the Insanity workout program. Other than that, I can't really think of anything I need. I just barely bought a hard drive so that I could get talks and songs from all of my companions, since they all have some really good ones that I want. I can't wait for General Conference! It seems like it just barely happened, and now it's here again! It's weird to think that I was in Salt Lake with Keegan and Taylor and Cody for last April's Conference. It's nice to just take two whole days and listen to the Prophet, Apostles, and Church Leaders. I learn so much from it. The work in our area has been awesome! I can't remember if I said this before, but our ward is doing a Book of Mormon reading challenge and a fast to go with it, and all of the members are doing it, and there have been some crazy results. We have great people that we are working with. The members are getting involved in the work, and the work itself is hastening! The Work has been picking up and we are finding more people to teach. Those that we visit with, who have been following along with the challenge, have been seeing tons of blessings in their lives and they are just happier. It's great! I LOVE this area! I get to sleep on a nice queen mattress, we have full car, and I love serving with Elder Lawless. He and I have a lot of fun together, and I have learned a lot from him as well! I hope that your week goes well and I will talk to you later! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Luckies!!!! I want snow!!!!!! Appreciate it while it is there. Yep, I served around Sister Partridge for about 3 or so months, I think. She is awesome! Hopefully, things go well for her at home and she can get back out here soon. (This is a Sister that went home with some heart problems) So it sounds like you had a good meeting yesterday. We deal with people asking us about the church's stance on Gays a lot! We just tell them that we believe that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, and that we are to follow the commandments of God. We aren't against those who are pro-gay, but just like another sin like breaking the law of chastity, we believe that everyone has the free agency to choose for themselves between right and wrong. Those that claim to have no control over their sexual orientation, and were born that way, is not true. It is a temptation or trial that is given to them in life, and just like any other temptation, they are to put off the natural man and choose right. Usually people who ask us about this question just want to cause problems and argue, so they just try and anti whatever we tell them, so we usually just leave it at that.
You asked me if I need anything. The only thing I'd like right now is the Insanity workout program. Other than that, I can't really think of anything I need. I just barely bought a hard drive so that I could get talks and songs from all of my companions, since they all have some really good ones that I want. I can't wait for General Conference! It seems like it just barely happened, and now it's here again! It's weird to think that I was in Salt Lake with Keegan and Taylor and Cody for last April's Conference. It's nice to just take two whole days and listen to the Prophet, Apostles, and Church Leaders. I learn so much from it. The work in our area has been awesome! I can't remember if I said this before, but our ward is doing a Book of Mormon reading challenge and a fast to go with it, and all of the members are doing it, and there have been some crazy results. We have great people that we are working with. The members are getting involved in the work, and the work itself is hastening! The Work has been picking up and we are finding more people to teach. Those that we visit with, who have been following along with the challenge, have been seeing tons of blessings in their lives and they are just happier. It's great! I LOVE this area! I get to sleep on a nice queen mattress, we have full car, and I love serving with Elder Lawless. He and I have a lot of fun together, and I have learned a lot from him as well! I hope that your week goes well and I will talk to you later! Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Sunday, March 30, 2014
9 Months and Counting!!!!
3-24-14
I can believe that I have been out for 9 months, but it's weird!!!!! When I think about it, it feels like it's been such a long time, but it also feels like I just barely got out here. I hope that Vanessa's performance goes well and that she does her best. As of right now, those possible baptisms are still up in the air. The people want to wait a little longer before they make any decisions, but one of them showed up to Sacrament yesterday, so that was great! This whole week was great, though. This week we were very blessed. I'm not sure exactly how, but we got 27 lessons this week, and we went on 4 splits with some of the ward members. I think the most lessons I have ever gotten in a week was 16, so this week was a huge success for us! The only explanation that I could think of how this happened would be us working hard and the ward's special fast and challenge that we are doing. The ward is taking on the challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days and have someone signed up to fast every day during this time for the challenge and missionary work, and it is working!!! We are finding new people to teach and we are getting referrals from members and church headquarters and people are letting us into their homes. I guess it just goes to show what great blessings come from being united in a cause and effort in something. Now the trick is to keep it going. I have been exhausted from it, but at least it is for a good reason. Rarely have I ever been led to someone on my mission. Most of the time it's someone who runs into you along the street or something. There have been so many times where I question if a thought I had to say or do something was from the Holy Ghost, and I realize that it was after the opportunity has passed, and other times it is pretty clear that it is from the Holy Ghost, and I know to act on it. I can see that over time, I am beginning to more easily distinguish the promptings of the Holy Ghost and that has helped me learn a lot and become a better missionary.
My personal studies have been awesome! I am currently going through the Book of Mormon more in depth. I've started it a few times on my mission, but I haven't gotten very far in it before I stop and get into something else. So now I am going through it all and marking a bunch of things in it. I am learning so many things that I never caught before when just reading through it. Now it takes me an entire hour to go through about 3-4 pages with all of the notes that I am taking. At this rate it will probably take me quite a while to get through the whole thing, but I will have that much of a stronger testimony of it by the time I'm done. How has your studying been going?
Want to know something crazy? I have gained 20 pounds in this area since I've been here, and not in fat. We have been doing a workout program from an exercise book that we got a while ago, and I've definitely gained some muscle from it.
I'm excited to get your letter and hear your missionary experience, Mom. I hope that you have a great week and that all goes well. Love ya!!!!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
I can believe that I have been out for 9 months, but it's weird!!!!! When I think about it, it feels like it's been such a long time, but it also feels like I just barely got out here. I hope that Vanessa's performance goes well and that she does her best. As of right now, those possible baptisms are still up in the air. The people want to wait a little longer before they make any decisions, but one of them showed up to Sacrament yesterday, so that was great! This whole week was great, though. This week we were very blessed. I'm not sure exactly how, but we got 27 lessons this week, and we went on 4 splits with some of the ward members. I think the most lessons I have ever gotten in a week was 16, so this week was a huge success for us! The only explanation that I could think of how this happened would be us working hard and the ward's special fast and challenge that we are doing. The ward is taking on the challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days and have someone signed up to fast every day during this time for the challenge and missionary work, and it is working!!! We are finding new people to teach and we are getting referrals from members and church headquarters and people are letting us into their homes. I guess it just goes to show what great blessings come from being united in a cause and effort in something. Now the trick is to keep it going. I have been exhausted from it, but at least it is for a good reason. Rarely have I ever been led to someone on my mission. Most of the time it's someone who runs into you along the street or something. There have been so many times where I question if a thought I had to say or do something was from the Holy Ghost, and I realize that it was after the opportunity has passed, and other times it is pretty clear that it is from the Holy Ghost, and I know to act on it. I can see that over time, I am beginning to more easily distinguish the promptings of the Holy Ghost and that has helped me learn a lot and become a better missionary.
My personal studies have been awesome! I am currently going through the Book of Mormon more in depth. I've started it a few times on my mission, but I haven't gotten very far in it before I stop and get into something else. So now I am going through it all and marking a bunch of things in it. I am learning so many things that I never caught before when just reading through it. Now it takes me an entire hour to go through about 3-4 pages with all of the notes that I am taking. At this rate it will probably take me quite a while to get through the whole thing, but I will have that much of a stronger testimony of it by the time I'm done. How has your studying been going?
Want to know something crazy? I have gained 20 pounds in this area since I've been here, and not in fat. We have been doing a workout program from an exercise book that we got a while ago, and I've definitely gained some muscle from it.
I'm excited to get your letter and hear your missionary experience, Mom. I hope that you have a great week and that all goes well. Love ya!!!!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Monday, March 17, 2014
Hoping for a couple Baptisms
3-17-14
Ya, I saw the article on Jordan that you sent. That's so crazy. It sounds like he is definitely being watched over right now. All of those things that you mentioned going on sound sad, but it's really a blessing to know that the things we understand about the Plan of Salvation, so that we can have peace when things like that happen. It sounds like you had a really great Sacrament meeting. Ours was really great, as well. There was a youth speaker who talked about being an example in all things, and the two adult speakers talked about the importance of enduring to the end. Each of them put a huge emphasis on making sure that nothing gets in the way of attending church every week and partaking of the Sacrament. The second adult who spoke was from the High Council and he told us that he was less-active for years and always found an excuse not to come to church, but he eventually came to realize what bad decisions he was making by neglecting to come to church. The part that stunk was that there were no less-active members at church that week. It always seems to work that way. The people who would benefit from a certain message the most are the ones that don't hear it. Oh well. That picture of all those missionaries in the 5K were in my last area, so I would have been able to do it if I was still there, and there are a lot of other runs in the mission, but none that are close by me. I want to do the tough mudder, buuuutttt, I don't think that that would be allowed. (?) Things have been going pretty well here. There weather has been pretty nice, we have had a good number of lessons, and we might be able to set a baptismal date or two this week if things go well, so I'm excited to see if that will happen. We also have interviews with president this week, so that will be good. How's the weather at home? Is there still any snow? Have Corbin's parents told you who he is doing? I haven't heard back from him since he got out to Japan. Anyway, love ya. I hope you have a great week.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Ya, I saw the article on Jordan that you sent. That's so crazy. It sounds like he is definitely being watched over right now. All of those things that you mentioned going on sound sad, but it's really a blessing to know that the things we understand about the Plan of Salvation, so that we can have peace when things like that happen. It sounds like you had a really great Sacrament meeting. Ours was really great, as well. There was a youth speaker who talked about being an example in all things, and the two adult speakers talked about the importance of enduring to the end. Each of them put a huge emphasis on making sure that nothing gets in the way of attending church every week and partaking of the Sacrament. The second adult who spoke was from the High Council and he told us that he was less-active for years and always found an excuse not to come to church, but he eventually came to realize what bad decisions he was making by neglecting to come to church. The part that stunk was that there were no less-active members at church that week. It always seems to work that way. The people who would benefit from a certain message the most are the ones that don't hear it. Oh well. That picture of all those missionaries in the 5K were in my last area, so I would have been able to do it if I was still there, and there are a lot of other runs in the mission, but none that are close by me. I want to do the tough mudder, buuuutttt, I don't think that that would be allowed. (?) Things have been going pretty well here. There weather has been pretty nice, we have had a good number of lessons, and we might be able to set a baptismal date or two this week if things go well, so I'm excited to see if that will happen. We also have interviews with president this week, so that will be good. How's the weather at home? Is there still any snow? Have Corbin's parents told you who he is doing? I haven't heard back from him since he got out to Japan. Anyway, love ya. I hope you have a great week.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
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