1-13-14
Well, we have transfer calls this Saturday and I might be leaving or staying. If I leave, it will probably be on the 20th of this month, so I might not be here. I don't know how I feel about possibly getting transferred. I want to experience another area, but I know this area so well now, it would almost feel like leaving home again-haha. I'm kind of hoping I will so I don't have to bike all the time, but so many areas are being put on full bike, so who knows. I may get transferred to another biking area if I do. There are some Garner's here, but not the one you mentioned. We have had a ton of opportunities to talk to people while we are out biking, and most of them are interested in learning more, but almost all of them are YSA or they live in some other missionaries area. It's been a little annoying, but I guess it doesn't matter who it goes to as long as someone teaches them. This week, one of the senior missionary couples gave me a chord sheet and some songs I could play (about 13 of them), but I've already played through them about 10 times each and now I need new songs. If you could find some hymns or instrumentals that are either strumming or tableture, that'd be great! This morning a member from the other missionaries ward, who lives with us, came to our gym to show us a good workout. He is a personal trainer and he is going to set up a workout program for us based on our gym equipment. He had us work out chest and back today, and it killed all of us. Elder Barnett didn't end up doing it. He has his own little program, but the rest of us got worked. It was a circuit training that we rotated between 4 things. We did a set of 25 reps for each station, then 15, then 12, then 12 again, and then 50 to end it. None of us could really get through it without taking a bunch of breaks. That was the first time that I've really worked out super hard since I've been out here. Now my back and chest are dead. He told us to take a tone of protein after we work out and a little while before we go to bed each night. I think I might take some protein in the mornings, but not at night. Hopefully, this will really get me back into shape. He gave us so many great tips for exercising, though.
This week, not too much happened. We had some good lessons with some investigators and we invited them to church, but no one showed up. Of course, it was an amazing service. All of the Sacrament talks were about the Godhead or on the existence of God. M. Arsenault wasn't there this week either, and she is the one who is atheist. So that really stunk! But, this last Wednesday, we met some guy who is originally from Honduras, but he came over to America when he was a baby. He has some major mental issues and is legitimately crazy. He has been baptized into about 18 different churches throughout his life. When we talked to him about the restoration and a little bit about baptism, he was like, "Dude, I'm kind of tired of getting baptized." It was funny. But, he is really interested and we will probably meet with him this week. Love ya!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
A Great Experience
1-6-13
My ankle is doing great (he spranged it a couple weeks ago playing p-day basketball). It's just a little stiff from healing. Last night was a really great experience. We had a member come out with us to a lesson with the Parker family. The member is actually from Logan, UT. He served in your mission, Dad. (St. Louis, Missouri) His name is Bro. Rasmussen. He came out with us to the lesson and it went pretty good for the most part. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and we had a really good discussion. I think that I've told you a little bit about the Parkers. Elder Lott and I found them a few months ago and they were just moving in. We offered them the Savior's Peace and Blessing and it went really well, but for some reason they ended up going back to the Methodist Church. But, at the end of the lesson, we were talking about the Prophet and priesthood authority and how through modern revelation the Plan of Salvation was revealed to us. At that point, the wife said, "You know, I don't think that this whole authority thing really matters, to be honest. I mean, as long as you have faith in Christ and you're going to church , it doesn't matter if you have a prophet and authority or not, and it doesn't matter what church you join." After she said that, in my mind I was just thinking, "What?! How is that not important? Of course it's important. You're not understanding this right!" After that we all just testified of the importance of why we need a modern day prophet and how Christ's Gospel has been restored. We talked about how in order for them to find out if what we are telling them it true that they need to pray and find out for themselves. Luckily, they agreed to do that, but for the most part they pretty much told us that they were good with their church. When we left, I was pretty sad and confused. They are such a great family and I just didn't understand how they couldn't see that this is what they are really looking for. On the way home, Bro. Rasmussen started talking to us about the whole situation. He said, "Elders, I know it's hard for you to be working with this family and them to not really see it the way that you see it for them. I know that it probably wasn't that great to know that you somehow inspired them to go to the Methodist church, but I believe that the Lord uses other churches to prepare people to receive the Gospel." I was kind of confused at this point, but it started to make sense. He continued to say, "The Parkers are not ready at this time to accept the entirety of the Gospel, so God has led them to a church that has certain truths that they are ready to accept for now, until some point in the future when it won't be enough to satisfy their ideas or questions that they may have about life. At that point, they will be ready to accept the Gospel and will be converted. What you need to do now is get them to read from the Book of Mormon and to really question it, because it is not something that can easily be explained away once someone has a knowledge of it. There are too many things pointing to the fact that it is true and that it is from God and not man. So just continue to work with them, and don't worry." When he shared that with us, mainly for me, it settled all of the questions and concerns that I had about the Parkers. I had never thought about the whole situation like that before, but it made perfect sense. It was such a great thing to think about.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
My ankle is doing great (he spranged it a couple weeks ago playing p-day basketball). It's just a little stiff from healing. Last night was a really great experience. We had a member come out with us to a lesson with the Parker family. The member is actually from Logan, UT. He served in your mission, Dad. (St. Louis, Missouri) His name is Bro. Rasmussen. He came out with us to the lesson and it went pretty good for the most part. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and we had a really good discussion. I think that I've told you a little bit about the Parkers. Elder Lott and I found them a few months ago and they were just moving in. We offered them the Savior's Peace and Blessing and it went really well, but for some reason they ended up going back to the Methodist Church. But, at the end of the lesson, we were talking about the Prophet and priesthood authority and how through modern revelation the Plan of Salvation was revealed to us. At that point, the wife said, "You know, I don't think that this whole authority thing really matters, to be honest. I mean, as long as you have faith in Christ and you're going to church , it doesn't matter if you have a prophet and authority or not, and it doesn't matter what church you join." After she said that, in my mind I was just thinking, "What?! How is that not important? Of course it's important. You're not understanding this right!" After that we all just testified of the importance of why we need a modern day prophet and how Christ's Gospel has been restored. We talked about how in order for them to find out if what we are telling them it true that they need to pray and find out for themselves. Luckily, they agreed to do that, but for the most part they pretty much told us that they were good with their church. When we left, I was pretty sad and confused. They are such a great family and I just didn't understand how they couldn't see that this is what they are really looking for. On the way home, Bro. Rasmussen started talking to us about the whole situation. He said, "Elders, I know it's hard for you to be working with this family and them to not really see it the way that you see it for them. I know that it probably wasn't that great to know that you somehow inspired them to go to the Methodist church, but I believe that the Lord uses other churches to prepare people to receive the Gospel." I was kind of confused at this point, but it started to make sense. He continued to say, "The Parkers are not ready at this time to accept the entirety of the Gospel, so God has led them to a church that has certain truths that they are ready to accept for now, until some point in the future when it won't be enough to satisfy their ideas or questions that they may have about life. At that point, they will be ready to accept the Gospel and will be converted. What you need to do now is get them to read from the Book of Mormon and to really question it, because it is not something that can easily be explained away once someone has a knowledge of it. There are too many things pointing to the fact that it is true and that it is from God and not man. So just continue to work with them, and don't worry." When he shared that with us, mainly for me, it settled all of the questions and concerns that I had about the Parkers. I had never thought about the whole situation like that before, but it made perfect sense. It was such a great thing to think about.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
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| The Elders with the food storage given to them by Ward members. |
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| Elder Whaley's Christmas message made from pictures! |
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| Most of the Christmas Loot! |
A New prospect
12-30-13
Well, this week we had a guy named James stop us and ask what we do. He has seen us around a lot, but didn't know what we did. We told him that we are missionaries and we told him briefly about the message of the restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and set up a return appointment. He has been Baptist all of his life, but he is looking for a change in religion, and he is interested in learning more about our church. Right now we aren't working with anyone who is progressing, so we are just doing a lot of biking and talking to people. A lot of the appointments that we have been setting up, however, have been canceling on us at the last minute, so we end up biking even more. So, we are in the mode of finding people to teach right now.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Well, this week we had a guy named James stop us and ask what we do. He has seen us around a lot, but didn't know what we did. We told him that we are missionaries and we told him briefly about the message of the restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and set up a return appointment. He has been Baptist all of his life, but he is looking for a change in religion, and he is interested in learning more about our church. Right now we aren't working with anyone who is progressing, so we are just doing a lot of biking and talking to people. A lot of the appointments that we have been setting up, however, have been canceling on us at the last minute, so we end up biking even more. So, we are in the mode of finding people to teach right now.
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
PreChristmas
12-23-13
Well, I will have to think of some questions to ask when we talk on Christmas day! Bishop Galbraith emailed me that experience in Jerusalem. That would be such a cool thing to see. Here I thought he was just a normal humble guy, but no, he has done a bunch of cool things and gone to a bunch of cool places that I've never known about. He's lived in Europe, served int he military, lived in Israel, and other places. Thank you so much for that Christmas package! I thought the whole Christmas message thing was awesome! I loved it!!!!! I'm going to take some pictures of all of it on Christmas day. It was great to see those pictures of everyone. That must have taken awhile to get all of those pictures. I can't wait to see what the rest of it is. We have four of us living in our apartment right now, so with all of us, we have quite a bit of gifts under our tree. Our ward is so awesome. They got each of us a bag full of gifts. I don't know what's in it yet, but it should be interesting. I have been listening to Christmas music a lot so that I can get into the spirit as much as possible, since we don't have any snow. It's worked a little bit, but I can't get all the way there yet. I'm so jealous of your cold weather and snow up there. I'm still roasting down here. Anyway, Love you guys. I'll see you in two days!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
Well, I will have to think of some questions to ask when we talk on Christmas day! Bishop Galbraith emailed me that experience in Jerusalem. That would be such a cool thing to see. Here I thought he was just a normal humble guy, but no, he has done a bunch of cool things and gone to a bunch of cool places that I've never known about. He's lived in Europe, served int he military, lived in Israel, and other places. Thank you so much for that Christmas package! I thought the whole Christmas message thing was awesome! I loved it!!!!! I'm going to take some pictures of all of it on Christmas day. It was great to see those pictures of everyone. That must have taken awhile to get all of those pictures. I can't wait to see what the rest of it is. We have four of us living in our apartment right now, so with all of us, we have quite a bit of gifts under our tree. Our ward is so awesome. They got each of us a bag full of gifts. I don't know what's in it yet, but it should be interesting. I have been listening to Christmas music a lot so that I can get into the spirit as much as possible, since we don't have any snow. It's worked a little bit, but I can't get all the way there yet. I'm so jealous of your cold weather and snow up there. I'm still roasting down here. Anyway, Love you guys. I'll see you in two days!
Love,
Elder A. Whaley
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