2nd Son/New Companion

Sorry I don't have much time, so I will give you all a watered down week.  We had transfers Thursday and I got my new companion that I am training, Elder Baumgartner.  He actually served a trial mission in Arizona, where he is from, so he has already gone through the training process once.  He is very different from all of the other companions that I have had,  but I'm sure that we will still work well together.  He does not like getting up in the mornings and working out, so I have to turn on the light and tell him to get up sometimes.  He also gets sidetracked very easily because he has ADHD.  He works hard and wants to be obedient, so that's good.
I am no longer the District Leader because Pres. just wants me focusing on training Elder Baumgartner, so I'm good with that.  I loved being a DL, but I'm glad that I don't have to do both at the same time now.
I should have some more things to mention in the upcoming weeks because we will be having some mission conferences and big ward activities that will be coming up here soon.  Have a great week!

Love,
Elder A. Whaley

Elder Whaley with his 2nd son,
Elder Baumgartner

Elder Baumgartner and Elder Whaley
getting the bike ready for missionary work!

Learned A Lot, But Have a Lot to Still Learn

2-2-15

Most of the beginning and middle of this week was nothing special, but the weekend had something really big about it.  This last Monday for our preparation day, we played volleyball at the church with some other missionaries and some of the members.  We haven't had too much work going on lately, so we have been trying to implement activities to get members to invite their friends to like volleyball.  We actually have a lot of ward activities coming up that should be good for missionary opportunities.  We have a county fair going on this next week and we will have a booth at it to hand out material and talk to people.  On the 20th we will be having a youth movie night where we will be watching the Saratov Approach.  On the 26th our ward is going to be having an open house for the community and we are trying to invite as many people as possible to come.
On Tuesday, we had District meeting and it turned out really good.  I focused the majority of the training on setting goals and having the vision to achieve them.  For the last part of the meeting, we discussed obedience and how we can become the Fourth Missionary (it's from a talk called the Fourth Missionary).  The Spirit was strong and all of the missionaries in the district were excited and committed to be an exactly obedient missionary.  After the meeting, I went on an exchange to the Wauchula area with Elder Brossa.  He is from Spain and he is super blunt and funny.  Throughout the exchange, I asked him questions and Spain and what everything was like.  He told me that practically no one uses a car because the public transportation will get you anywhere that you need to go.  In Spain, they usually eat lunch around 2 p.m. and they have dinner around 10 p.m.  The thing that shocked me the most though, was that everyone takes a nap on a daily basis from 3-5 p.m. because it is too hot to be out at that time.  The streets are completely empty during those hours.  Spain sounds like it would be a really neat place to visit.
The rest of the week following the exchange was pretty normal.  We struggled quite a bit to find people to teach, so most of our days were spent either finding on the streets or trying to work with the members as much as we could.  Nothing else exciting happened until Sunday morning when we got transfer emails.  We found out that Elder Dardon is going to be transferred this coming Thursday, and I am going to be training a new missionary again!  I am not as nervous about it as I was the first time, but I am wondering how I am going to balance everything I need to do as a District leader and train at the same time.  It's going to make it difficult with things like exchanges, but I'm sure that it will all work out.  That means that I am going to be in this area for the next two transfers and I will only have one more left, so I'm guessing that I will just die in this area.  I was hoping to serve in one more area, but now it doesn't look like that is going to happen.
This last transfer has felt so long because of all of the things that have happened with being a District leader.  There are so many fun aspects to it and I love, but also so many things that I wish I didn't need to do.  I know that it is all good, though, and that it has a purpose.  I know that I have grown a lot this last transfer because of the responsibilities that I have been entrusted with, and that I still have a whole lot to learn.  I hope that you all have a great week and that everything goes well with Elder S. Whaley's return.

Love,
Elder A. Whaley

Working Hard!

1-26-15

So, I can't think of anything too exciting that happened this week in the mission.  There was definitely a lot of fun and weird things that happened, but no huge events or occurrences.
Last Tuesday for District meeting, I had one of the other companionships in the District take about 10 minutes to give a training on working with members and they did a really great job.  For the remainder of the meeting we talked about ways in which we could more effectively find in our individual areas studying from chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel.  After the meeting, I went on an exchange with one of the Spanish Elders in the Lake Placid area.  He is originally from Mexico and so English is his second language.  It was kind of hard to understand him, but he is so funny!  On the exchange in the evening, we went to an investigators house who is watching one of the member's dog while she is gone on a trip.  We helped her walk the dog to the members home for the night to tie her up to sleep, but we had to coax her with hot dogs because she kept growling at us.  It was a fat pit bull.  After we took care of the dog, we had a lesson with the lady, but she only spoke Spanish, so I just sat there for most of the lesson.
When I returned from the exchange, the next day Elder Dardon told me that they had to break into the apartment again because they couldn't get the key that we had left. (We had stopped by to grab something from the apartment on the way to Lake Placid and we left the key under the door).  So, they had to climb up the patio and break in through the sliding door like I did a few weeks ago when we locked ourselves out.
On Wednesday night, when we were on our way home, the road was completely blocked off right at the intersection that we needed to turn at to get to our complex.  There was a really bad car wreck a few hours earlier and they were still cleaning everything up.  The next day we found out that one of our new investigators was in that wreck.  We had given her a blessing a few days earlier for some upcoming heart surgery.  The person that we found this out from lived with her and she told us that she was just bruised and banged up, but nothing severe.
On Saturday we had a super awkward and uncomfortable lesson when we were trying to contact a media referral that we had received.  The person had requested a Bible for her daughter, and so that's what we came by to do.  When we pulled up and got out of the car the mom was outside in the backyard and she asked who we were.  We told her and asked if we could share a message with her.  She said, "Ya, that would be great!  Let me go grab my daughter and niece and I will be right back."  I was surprised that she even said yes.  When she came back out with them, she said, "Now these two gentlemen are going to teach you about God's word and I am going to be out back making dinner."  So she just left us alone outside with her daughter and niece, who were both in 9th grade, and she didn't even really know who we were.  So we quickly shared a message about the restoration of the Gospel and asked if there would be a time that we could come back when the mom could sit in on the lesson and listen to what it was that we were teaching them.  It was all super awkward?  I just couldn't understand how some mom would just trust two men that walked up to their door to talk to her girls alone.
This Sunday we had a big ward Conference and a lot of the members from the Port Charlotte ward came to church and it was nice to see them again.
I hope that you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder A. Whaley

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