Changes in the Mission

1-19-15

Well, we had a pretty crazy week that was full of surprises and some changes.  On Tuesday, we had interviews with President Cusick over in Sarasota, and that actually turned out to be pretty nice.  We were about 40 minutes late, however, because the Elders that gave us a ride there got stuck doing some service in the morning for one of their investigators.  Elder Dardon and I ended up having our interviews, but because we were running late the other Elders had to reschedule theirs for another day.  By the time we got back from interviews the day was practically over.
   On Thursday, we had another big meeting up in Tampa with all of the missionaries.  This meeting also took most of the day and we didn't get back until the late evening.  The purpose of the meeting was to provide training, but also to inform everyone of changes that had occurred in the mission.  The first one that they told us about that was really unexpected was that they changed the boundaries of our mission.  The bottom zone of our mission, Ft. Myers, was absorbed into the Ft. Lauderdale mission along with the 30 missionaries that were serving down there.  So Wednesday, we had 169 missionaries in the mission, but as of last Thursday, we now have 139 missionaries.  When I first cam out, we were at about 235 missionaries.  So, my first area that I served in is no longer a part of this mission.  The second big change that they made was with our iPads.  Everyone of the missionaries had their own devices that they were using, but they decided to take half of them away so that there is now only one per companionship.  I think it is a pretty good change to help us be more focused and unified as a companionship, but it also makes it difficult because all of my notes and tasks and other reminders were on my device, and now I don't have any of it.
   This last week we found a new investigator named Carl who has shown a lot of interest in the church and baptism.  We set a date for hime for the 14th of February and he is really excited about it. He is doing a great job reading in the Book of Mormon and keeping all of the commitments that we leave with him to do.
   I hope that everything goes well with the demolition and remodeling of the bathrooms and that you all have a great week.  Love you!

Elder A. Whaley

Learning some Spanish!

1-12-15

This week was pretty slow for our area.  We have just dropped most of our investigators and have been doing a lot of finding through the members and out on our bikes.
   For our last district meeting, Wednesday, we had some of the sister training leaders come and present a short training on cleaning and maintaining our temples (apartments, cars, etc.).  For the rest of the meeting I gave a training on becoming converted.  We discussed what a testimony was and what conversion was.  Then, we talked about what the Gospel was and our purpose in helping others receive it.  The purpose of the training was focusing on how, by being converted ourselves, we can better help our investigators and others we work with become converted to the Savior and His Gospel.
    After the meeting I went on an exchange with one of the Spanish elders in the district and served in his area for the day.  At the beginning of the exchange, I probably knew about ten words in Spanish, but now I probably know about 30.  I know how to give a card to someone who speaks Spanish and how to get their telephone number for them to call the Spanish speaking missionaries.  It's pretty fun! In the evening we went to the church to coordinate activities and plans with the members and for their youth activity they were playing volleyball.  There were about 20 nonmembers that showed up too!
   On Friday evening our Zone leaders came to our apartment to stay the night and help us gut out our apartment.  For the first two hours of our day after studies, we did nothing but de-clutter and wipe down everything from top to bottom.  It felt really weird when it was all done because it looked like no one even lived in our apartment besides a few desks and some beds.
    On Sunday, our Gospel Principles teacher didn't show up, and so one of the members in the class took over and taught the lesson and it was awesome!  He use to be an area 70 and he is a very bold and spiritual man.  We talked about our heavenly family and what our Heavenly Father wants for us more than anything.  During our third hour, he also taught Elders Quorum and that was just as good.
    This coming week we will be having interviews with our mission President as well as a Zone Conference up in Tampa.  That will be nice seeing that we haven't had either in a while.  I hope that all is well for you and that  you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Whaley

Elder Austin Whaley back from Port Charlotte

Lake Jackson outside of apartment

Elder Austin Whaley

Motivation/Goal board

Doing missionary work at a restaurant

First baptism interview with a lady
he started teaching in Port Charlotte
(love the photo bomber)

Little Free Library with a Book of Mormon
in the front

Loves Conducting Baptism Interviews

12-29-14

Herro!

This last week was somewhat difficult to work with since many of our investigators and members were gone for the holidays, so we didn't have too many people to see.  We did quite a bit of finding on the streets, but didn't have too much success there, either.  Christmas was great, though.  After our Skype call, we went to a member's home for lunch and afterwards just hung out at our apartment.  I took the time to study the scriptures and to ponder about the Christmas season and reason.  During this time, we also watched a bunch of church videos and got to relax a bit.
I think my favorite thing about being a district leader is conducting baptismal interviews.  The spirit is so strong in them and I am so excited for the people I get to interview!  Tuesday morning we drove over to Port Charlotte to give an interview for Angela, one of the Elders' investigators.  I actually was teaching her with Elder Lawless for a bit and with Elder Swallow before I left, and she finally decided to be baptized!  The interview was pretty quick, but I was just so happy to see that she received answers to the things that concerned her when i was teaching her and that she was taking this step.  The other interview that I got to hold this week was for one of the sisters' investigators in our ward.  Her name is Sylvia and she had investigated the church for an entire year before deciding to be baptized.  She was completely ready, though.  The interview went really well, but at the end of it she asked me how someone can get excommunicated from the church.  She was curious because someone she knew had been excommunicated.  I told her the process in which it happens and I told her that those people are always invited to join the church again after a period of time through repentance.
Saturday was her baptism and it was probably the most spiritual baptism I've been to out here so far.  For the intermission they had Elder Dardon and I go up and relate the restoration to the people attending.  It was such a cool experience!  At the end of the baptism she got up and bore her testimony with us all.
I hope that all is going well for you and that this next week turns out to be a great one!

Love,
Elder A. Whaley

Elder Austin Whaley 

Elder Whaley and ?

Elder Whaley at living quarters in
Port Charlotte 

Elder Dardon, Elder Whaley, and ?

District Leader

12-22-14

This last week has been crazy busy and crazy crazy!  At the beginning of last week we had three baptismal dates originally set to happen this past weekend.  One of the interviews was done Sunday and the other two were done Wednesday.  All of them passed their interviews, but we ended up having to cancel one of the baptisms because of some information that we found out about.  Long story short, we ended up having two baptisms this past weekend.  The first was with Ellis and the second was Ressie.
I had the privilege of baptizing Ellis and it was a little difficult!  Everything went fine with the prayer, but he did NOT want to go under the water.  So, I had to tell him to just bend his knees and we did the prayer again.  I felt really bad because I had to basically shove him under the water and he started to panic when his head went under.  It was good that I got him to go all the way, though, because when he came up, he said, "I am not doing that again!"
Our bishop baptized Ressie and everything went very well with her baptism.  She was so happy the entire time.  She had been waiting to be baptized for a while.
On Sunday, Elder Dardon did the confirmation for Ellis and our bishop did it for Ressie.  It was pretty neat.
The other thing that happened this week that was crazy and scary is that I was made the district leader!  We had transfers this past Thursday and I found out that my MTC companion, Elder Nelson, is my new Zone leader and he ended up calling me to ask if I would serve as the DL for our district.  I've never been the district leader before!  I don't even know everything that I am suppose to do.  I've been pretty stressed out the past couple of days.  I want to just make sure that I do a good job.  Our first district meeting is coming up this Wednesday and I have to figure out what I need to present training on.  I never thought that I would have been made DL.

Love,
Eler A. Whaley

Elder Dardon, Ellis, Elder Whaley, and
Ellis' little brother

Elder Whaley, Ressie's family, Ressie,
Elder Dardon

Ninja Status!

12-15-14

This last week was really great for us.  We had our mission Christmas party and we still got a lot of work done.
The party was on Wednesday at Bradenton beach.  It ended up being pretty windy and cold all day, so we couldn't do much of anything except kick a soccer ball around and throw a football.  Later in the evening, we had an ugly sweater contest and sang some Christmas songs.  It's crazy to think that it's been an entire year since the last Christmas party that we had.
As of right now, there are three of our investigators who are planning on getting baptized this Saturday. Their names are: Ellis, Ressie, and Julie.  Ellis has already had his baptismal interview and is ready to go, and the other two are going to be having their interviews Wednesday.
A fun experience that I had two weeks ago that I forgot to tell you about, was us breaking into our apartment because we locked ourselves out.  We tried to pick the lock with a card at first, but it didn't work, so I had Elder Dardon lift me up onto our balcony so I could climb up it and try to get through our sliding glass door.  The door ended up being locked, but I had an "idea" to move the door in a circular motion to try and unlatch the lock.  After about two minutes of doing this, the door unlocked and I got in.  Now I am Ninja Status!

Love,
Elder A. Whaley

Elders at Christmas party on Bradenton  beach

Elder Chamberlain and Elder Whaley

Elder Whaley 5th from the left.  Christmas
party at Bradenton beach.