Nov. 18 to Nov. 25

Surprise surprise, Pday is Monday and I'm actually emailing on Pday. It's been awhile, but this is supposed to be the norm. 

Tuesday 11/19- Had pday, played some basketball with Elder Leavitt. Bro Chistopherson, in our bishopric, took us to the locally famous Tommy Burger joint.  Spent the evening tracking down HQ referrals, which we had a bunch of. 1 wasn't interested at all, one of them was a 12 year old whose mother we need to talk to before teaching (hopefully we can teach them both!), and the third was very interested but busy. However, we do have an appointment with her tonight, so that should be cool. 

Wednesday- Spent most of Wednesday just trying to find people to preach to, which was made even longer because Cheryl cancelled on us. Long day, with lots of miles put on the bikes. We did finally meet the Spanish Elders whose area overlaps ours. Had a quick roadside correlation type meeting with them, which is very good for us and them. 

Thursday- So the high school and middle school are right by the church building. Close to when school lets out the parking lot is rather full of nonmember types. We decided to take advantage of the easy tour invitation and tried to get people to come inside and see the building. We only got one, and that was just because she didn't believe us when we said we had a full-size basketball court in there. But hey, we got someone inside, and we invited as many people as we could to do so. Not much else we can do without them exercising their agency in favor of salvation. We also taught Virgil again, this time about Church attendance. You might remember that he is paralyzed on one side of his body. Anyways, as were talking, we discovered he's WAY more mobile than one would have guessed. And he committed to coming to church so long as the weather cooperated. He gets really sick when the weather is bad. We also taught Steve, who skipped out on Sacrament early last week. He's really eager to get the Melchizedek priesthood and to go to the temple, so we explained that if he wants that he's got to be at church every Sunday for a while. He also committed to church attendance. 

Friday- Had a lesson with Cheryl, in which she basically dropped us. She just can't let go of herself, which is sad because she honestly doesn't have to change very much about herself to get baptized. Her time will come eventually. It is also a bummer because she was half our teaching pool, and the only one really in a position to get baptized soon. However, the Lord blessed us. That night we went to the house of a woman we contacted last Friday but haven't gotten a hold of since. Her husband answered, let us right in, and we taught him the Restoration. It was cool to watch his face change to actual amazement when we described the First Vision and the Restoration of the priesthood. His wife showed up towards the end and as so often happens to lessons that are going awesome things just sort of fizzled to an end, instead of having a real solid closing which is often essential for them to have understanding. But, they were super nice to us. They kept offering us food, they gave us a ride home, and told us to come back soon. They also said they would be at church Sunday morning. 

Saturday- We contacted a lot of less actives today, which was cool. What was less cool is that most of them declared pretty resolutely that they weren't now members, never were, and never would be. Which is just strange because the church keeps pretty good records of who gets the saving ordinance of baptism. I mean, how else would we know their names, addresses, phone numbers, and birthdays? Which we pointed out to some, who still insisted there was some mistake. It's very sad to see how Satan causes people to forget their baptism with such finality as to render any discussion about coming back useless, because they insist that there is nothing to which they need return. Oh well. Those are the people who will have the most interesting experience in the after life in my opinion. Our dinner on Saturday was really good. We ate with the Twardecki's, who are Polish. Polish food is quite excellent, especially misery soup. 

Sunday- The weather was beautiful, we followed up with everyone on Saturday, and still none of the four who promised to come showed up. I would've been happy with just one less-active, but oh well. Next week. Next week will be better. We went and visited two of the homes with people who didn't come, and after patiently hearing their reasons for failing to keep the sabbath day holy, recommitted them and set up appointments for this week. So we'll see how those go. I do still believe that they have real intent, Elder Leavitt and I just need to build their faith a little more. 

Everyone take care and please continue praying for Becky Powell. She had an allergic reaction to the treatment and has been hospitalized for the last week and a half. Now they have to resort to an older, less effective, more painful mode of treatment. The whole family is in a rough place. 

Elder Whitney

Nov. 12 - Nov. 18

Here is the goings on of God's work in the Creekside ward. 

Tuesday 11/12: The highlight of last Tuesday was picking up a new investigator for the first time with Elder Leavitt. We met with Cheryl, an older woman who came to church the Sunday before and just bawled all the way through Sunday School. She was very happy to see us, and we thought she understood the Restoration pretty well. We met with her a lot this week because she is always home. 

Wednesday: We taught a lot of lessons today, which was awesome. We taught Cheryl the plan of salvation, and she really liked the Resurrection. We talked with Virgil about baptism. Last time we had met with him was quite a while ago, and he raised a pretty big concern with repentance, that ultimately extended from him not quite understanding how it worked. We left an assignment to read Alma 42 and then we would talk about it next time. Although, the Book of Mormon answered his question perfectly! We checked his understanding quickly, just to make sure that he did get it, and he does. So that was cool. He isn't sure that he needs to align himself with any specific church right now though, so he will take some more time. On Wednesday we also met with the Powell family. The Powells are a part member, less active family that just moved here from Montana. We got referred to them by the grandparents who asked to go give a blessing to the daughter. So we went with Bishop Burnett to offer the blessing and found much more than we thought we would. So they moved in September, and in October, the 13 year old daughter Becky was diagnosed with cancer in her bone marrow. Which just sucks. Only her Dad is baptized, and the family doesn't know anything really about how blessings work, or anything like that. So we taught her about those, she was really quiet. Then we gave the blessing, let them know we'd continue to check up on them and that members of the ward would come by, too. I just can't imagine what their situation is like right now. Hopefully we can start actually teaching them soon so that if things go south they've got the ordinances they need. So, that's a good family to keep praying for.  

Thursday: Thursday saw some appointments fall through, but we made some real good contacts. One of them waved us down and asked why we never went by his house. We were like, "Well we'd love to start doing that!" His name is Andre, and we haven't seen him since. But, we know where he lives and where is girlfriend lives, so we'll track him down. He seemed pretty genuine. We also met a woman who kept lamenting that she didn't raise children as committed to their church as we are to ours. We just told her, we'd love to come by and tell you how it's done ma'am. So we've set up an appointment with her this week as well, which will feature the family proclamation. Sister Becerra came to our district meeting this week too, that was pretty cool. The zone leaders were there too. Also, this was Elder Leavitt's Birthday! I sang to wake him up. He threw stuff at me because my morning voice is very, ahem, special. 

Friday: Met with Cheryl again, and taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We tried to set her up with a baptismal date, but she wouldn't commit, which was frustrating. She did say she would pray about it though, which is something. We spent the rest of the day trying to talk to people that wouldn't listen, which is always a bummer, but not discouraging. We're doing what we can to offer them the Gospel. 

Saturday: Had a lesson with Cheryl that wasn't what we planned it to be. The night before we'd planned to watch the Joseph Smith movie with her, but when we got there she tried to drop us. Tried. We talked with her, reassured her that this takes time, and even though we strongly push baptism, it's because the blessings that come with it are so vital that to delay them is just silly. We apologized for moving too quickly for her, and said that we wanted to keep visiting and just work on helping her understand more about Joseph Smith and prophets/authority. So that was a good lesson for us and for her. We also went to a birthday party for one of the youth. She invited us because there would be several nonmembers there. So we went and tried to strike up some conversations with them. They had some questions about what we do and things like that but weren't particularly interested beyond that. However, we did decide that would start working with the family that invited us so that the missionary efforts they are already making can become missionary successes. 

Sunday: Cheryl didn't come to church, but one of the less actives did come to sacrament. By that I mean as soon as we finished passing, he bolted. The elders quorum president tried to run him down but he disappeared real good. We intend to talk to him about that this week and see if we can't get him to stay for at least all of sacrament. Then Elder Leavitt got a gnarly migraine after church and we were forced to retire for the evening. He tried to sleep it off while a did a lot of different stuff. Watched some church videos, read a lot of scriptures and Preach My Gospel, etc. Read a lot out of Jesus the Christ. There is a lot of information in every single sentence of that book. It's crazy. 

Monday 11/18: We had zone conference all day. Which was pretty awesome. We got a lot of instruction from President, the Assistants, and sister Becerra. I wrote down a lot of things that Elder Leavitt and I are going to start doing so that the work can hasten even faster. Did you know that the Brethren are referring to this period as the Hastening, and that they say it is as important as the Restoration of the Gospel? Just think about that and what it implies about us being saved to be on Earth for this. 

That was my week! I hope you all are doing well, are healthy physically and spiritually. The church is true, and no man can slow down the work of God. The only question is, will the work go on with or without us? 

Love you all,

Elder Brett Whitney

For Your Information

We got a notice from the mission office that there is a scam going in the California area.  Someone calls family members of the missionary and says he is in trouble and he needs money.  They target grandparents and other relatives also.  If this happens hang up.  We need to let the mission office know immediately if anyone gets one of these calls.

For Christmas make sure all packages are sent early.  They are having a Christmas party on Dec. 13th for all of the missionaries.  We would certainly appreciate anyone who can send a Christmas Care package to Brett with some goodies in it, since we are limited to what we can order from the internet.

Thanks to all of you out there who give support to Brett.  Keep the letters and prayers coming.

Matt & Trish

Nov. 4 - Nov. 11 Second Week in Walnut

Because of various circumstances I was unable to email yesterday, and then further forces of evil combined to prevent me from emailing late tonight. Well, I shouldn't say forces of evil, it's my zone leaders' fault, and they aren't evil. Back to the thing.

So to start things off, something that happened just today during a lunch time viewing of The Testaments:

I'd been thinking lately that the sort of faith the people who lived on Earth before Christ had to be fundamentally different from ours. We enjoy the benefit of knowing that a man named Jesus came from Nazareth and taught the things the Bible says He did. That is established fact. That person existed. We hope and have faith that the things He taught and did are real; that He did perform the Atonement, redeeming us from both deaths. The pre-Christ people didn't have that extra piece of information. They believed that they were in need of salvation. They knew that so-called prophets said a Messiah would come. But that was all they had to go on. And yet they believed. I think that's really pretty incredible. 

Back to the movie, Helam loses his sight in the disasters following Christ's death, and can't see the Savior when He appears to the Nephites. His son, Jacob guides him towards the Master, describing Him and His actions. Jacob then laments that his father can't actually see Him. That's when Christ lays His hand on Jacob's shoulder, gently pushing him aside. And then He heals Helam so that he can see Him.. I noticed a lot of things in this sequence of events. As a missionary, I am like Jacob, striving to help his father see, or know, Christ. However, I cannot make my investigators "see" Him. I can tell them all about Him. I can tell them over and over again that He is real. However, it is only through the Spirit that their "sight is healed," giving them a personal witness that Jesus IS the Christ. So that's one thing. 

The other though, has to do with healing. You are of course aware of the whole migraine thing, and that has always made me more sensitive to the Spirit when healing is depicted/talked about. In the Testaments, when Christ touches Helam, before even healing him, Helam sinks to his knees. My thought was/is this, "Even the faithful must be brought to their knees to know Christ." All of this driving to the confirmation I received from the Spirit after that. The Spirit testified to me that Christ really did do everything the scriptures and prophets say He did. He gave up His own life, something no normal man had the power to take from Him, so that you and I can be raised up at the glorious day of judgement. So that we can receive immortality and eternal life. The Christ came, and performed the Atonement. It was and is as real as the paper the scriptures are written on. What a wonderful, joyous thing to know that He did it! Jesus Christ is the way, and He is the Savior of all mankind. That is my testimony and no one can cause me to deny it. To quote the prophet, I know it, I know that God knows it, and I cannot deny it. In the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, amen. 

Monday 11/4: Had a pretty regular p-day, played some basketball and watched Sister Kretchman fail at the whipped cream game (put whipped cream on left wrist, lower left arm then rapidly bring it up. As it gets about level, use your right hand/arm to stop your left. This causes the whipped cream to launch into the air. Proceed to catch flying whipped cream in mouth. good luck, take pictures). For dinner we ate with a nonmember who has is more active than most of the ward. Like, for years he's been attending church with us. The sisters have started teaching him though, so hopefully we'll see him get baptized real soon here. Then we met with the relief society presidency to talk about who they wanted us to be visiting/how we could help them. That was productive. That night we began exchanges with the district leaders. Elder Blake joined me in Creekside and Elder Leavitt got to do some Korean work with Elder Sorenson. 

Tuesday: Like I said, exchanges with the Korean elders/district leaders. We tried to find a headquarters referral, knocked on a lot of less-actives doors. Contrary to the trend, many of them answered and gave us phone numbers with which to set up appointments. Even more contrary, all of the numbers are legit! So that was pretty sweet. Then we tried to ride some buses just to do some finding, but not many people were in a talk-to-the-mormons kind of mood. That's okay though, we gave them a chance. That evening we met with a sort of recent convert, Steve, that has been growing less active. We talked about the commandments, and he said he would come to church this week (He didn't, but we've already visited him again and re-committed him to it).

In the evening I got Elder Leavitt back, who said Korean is impossible to learn. Guess there's one reason he and I got called English speaking. 

Wednesday: Wednesday morning we did a lot of work on the Sisters' future apartment. Then we discovered that E. Leavitt had two flats and I had some gear issues with my bike. That took several hours to resolve. We then spent the night trying to track down less-actives and potentials. That went okay. There's one guy, Alfredo, that we've been trying to meet for two weeks. He's on dialysis, so you'd think he'd be easier to meet with. Not so. Same with our one investigator, Virgil. He's paralyzed and totally bed-ridden yet we weren't able to meet with him at all this week. Which was a total bummer but we've got appointments with both this week. So no fear there. 

Thursday: We had zone meeting at the stake center, where Elder Leavitt got some pretty good ideas and instruction on how to improve our finding efforts. We realized that there a ton of parks in our area, and most of them are well lit and well maintained. We were also taught to teach the Restoration in 5 minutes to as many contacts as possible. Those two things have helped Elder Leavitt and I use our time better in a major way. Zone meetings, gotta love 'em. Anyways, that night we had the elder's quorum president for dinner and he is also the mission bike expert. So he looked at our unsolved bike woes from Tuesday and got us rolling in much better shape. He's a real blessing to have in the ward here, I'll tell you that. Especially since we ride so much. 

Friday: On Friday we had a 6 week training meeting with President Becerra. That was really awesome. Generally speaking, it was two hours of chastisement, but we came out knowing much better how to improve ourselves as missionaries in all respects. Basically, it all comes down to having hope in baptizing monthly, which is the mission goal for every companionship. Then we did weekly planning, which went much better than last weeks. During planning, we got like, 3 referrals in the space of 30 minutes, and they all said contact ASAP. So we did. Two of them we couldn't find, but one, Robert, we did talk to. He's so prepared, it's awesome! We haven't been able to meet with him and officially start teaching him, but we will tomorrow (11/13). I'm really excited for that. We went to a park that night and played the game 21 with some guys we met there. I won't explain it in full, but basically I did like, 100 pushups while playing basketball. However, we did get two phone numbers and names to give to the singles ward missionaries. So it was worth it. 

Saturday: We spent the first couple hours refining a family mission plan that we are going to be using with our members here. It's pretty good, if I do say so myself. I'll probably attach it to this email for you to look at/use. Then we went and contacted another of the referrals from Friday. They're a part member/less active family whose daughter has cancer. The parents sent us, saying that they had agreed to a blessing for the daughter and nothing more. That is also happening tomorrow. The cool thing about Saturday night is that we somehow ended up at the door of an active family living about 3 miles away from where we had planned to be that night. And for the life of me, I cannot figure out how that happened. But, we were there, and it was good. They fed us dinner, which was neat since we weren't planning on eating that night. And then, I asked them about their neighbors. Somehow, that triggered in the wife's mind a remembrance of a woman who has been going to RS activities for several years, is best friends with several of the long time members of the ward, yet has never been to church with us before. We committed the family to inviting Rina to church that night, and they were like, "yeah, we don't know why we haven't already!" That was pretty sweet.After that we went to the home of a less active sister Sis. Coley, recently widowed. We talked a lot about family history, and invited her to church.

Sunday: Rina came to church! Sis. Coley came to church! and another family brought us a referral who we turned into an investigator today (today meaning Tuesday the 12)! The primary program was awesome. Sunday school was perfect for a day with two entirely new people there. Then we met with the priests/teachers quorum, and they decided that they like us, so that was pretty sweet. All in all, Church was awesome. I love church. Everybody, go to church. That afternoon we had a training meeting with the Area Pres, Stake Pres, and Mission Pres. It was great for us because they basically laid into the ward leadership and told them what they ought to be doing with us. Which was something we had been struggling to bring up with our ward in a way that didn't seem like we were trying to "take over" or something like that. So we are very grateful for the leaders of the church and the inspired messages they teach us. We met with Steve from Tuesday, and read from the Book of Mormon with him. His commitment is to read another chapter before we meet again on Wednesday and to come to church. We also met with Robert from Friday night again and just told him plainly, in this time when his life seems to be falling apart, our message is what he needs the most, and he needs it now. So we have an appointment set up with him soon. 

All in all, a pretty cool week, especially the last few days. We are excited to have finally picked up a new investigator Cheryl, and are even more excited to turn our fairly massive pool of potentials into investigators. Hopefully the next email features lots and lots of lessons and a lot less biking. According to E. Leavitt's odometer we rode 150 miles (up and down and up hills all the time) in the first two weeks. I bought myself an odometer yesterday, so yes Dad, I will include some of those stats for you since I know you would like that. 

The book is blue, and the church is true, love you all, keep on praying!

Elder Brett Whitney

Oct. 28-Nov 3

Hi all!

As you know I was unexpectedly transferred early two weeks ago, and last Monday I got a new companion. So first, a bit about my companion, Elder Leavitt.

Elder Leavitt is from Kenniwick, WA (Of the 4 missionaries in the Creekside ward, none of us are from Utah). He reported to the MTC on July 24, 2013. So yes, only one transfer older than me. He is 18, turning 19 pretty soon here though. He marched alto sax all through high school but wishes he had played a brass instrument. Besides knowing what DCI is, his favorite corps is the Cavaliers or Phantom Regiment. He has dark brown hair and glasses. He is an eagle scout. He loves Hot Rod. He doesn't like spicy food. he gets migraines. Our old companions are now companions in his first area. The jaws of people who know me can now be picked up off the floor, because the list of similarities just continues. 

I've pretty much determined that so far we are essentially the same person. Which makes things pretty good as far as our companionship goes. Which is definitely a blessing from the Lord, given the task we've been assigned with in the area. 

On to the day by day:

10/28 Monday- Spent most of P-day with my district leaders (they are Korean speaking) and two of the local Chinese speaking elders. One of them is from Beijing, so we were able to talk about some cool stuff there. The other Chinese elder is a close family friend of the Martindales, so that was a weird and unexpected connection. Elder Leavitt showed up around 2 and we spent the rest of P-day getting him moved in and what not. 

Tuesday- After morning studies we had a brief correlation with the Sister missionaries in the ward to determine how to move forward in the ward. After that we visited a recent convert named Miguel. We had a pretty visit with him talking about how blessings are predicated on obedience and things like that. We also talked about how we can help him introduce a lot of his friends to the gospel in the coming weeks. Miguel has, get this, banana trees (technically banana shrubs). He also introduced us to a mysterious fruit that grows on a tree in his yard. We still don't know what it was, but it was pretty good. The rest of the day was spent riding around trying to find less actives from the ward list, which was semi-successful. We found a few names that moved, and a few good ones for the sisters to be visiting. 

Wednesday- Elder Leavitt was suddenly uber sick Tuesday night, so we spent most of Wednesday at home, trying to let him get better. I did get to give him a blessing. We did get out that night to meet with the ward mission leader and the bishop. We set a goal to increase our teaching pool from 1 to 6 by the end of the month. 

Thursday- I think I forgot to mention this, but on the 25th we had Elder Sitati of the Seventy come to the mission. He taught us a really cool way to study our purpose as missionaries and told us that by studying our purpose we could answer every single question we have about missionary work and our areas. That was a neat promise, and I've been studying it pretty furiously since then. If anyone needs guidance and answers for their area right now, it's elder Leavitt and myself. Anyways, I bring that up because that's what we focused on in district meeting last week. Thursday afternoon we had a lesson with Virgil, our only investigator. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. He pretty much accepted it, except he has some major issues with repentance (not his own, but like how people who commit serious crimes can be forgiven). So that's what we are going to teach him this week. We are also going to make arrangements with his wife, who is a member, to try and get him to sacrament meeting this week. He is paralyzed on one side of his body so it's going to be a challenge, but we think he can do it if he has enough support from us and the ward. Thursday night we helped set up the ward's halloween party, stayed for the event, met a lot of members, and then helped tear it down. It was a pretty fun night. Cornbread is delicious.

Friday- Our hosts, the Helburgs randomly left on a 3 day cruise on Princess. We did studies and weekly planning until lunchish and then went to find a HQ referral we got on Thursday. The address was bogus though. However, we did meet a guy who was pretty interested. We were at a corner looking at the map when for some reason I looked up, just in time to see him. I called out, asking if I could give him a mormon.org card. He turned around a took it. Usually, at this these street contacts are turned into conversations about the person we're contacting, but Elder Leavitt just went for it and asked if he wanted to meet with missionaries, and he said yes! He doesn't live in our area, but we got his information and missionaries will be meeting him pretty soon hopefully. So that was a very successful outing. After dinner, which was preceded by possibly the longest uphill ride of my life, we were forced home early. Elder Leavitt never really fully recovered from Tuesday night, and as we left dinner I was pretty sure I was going to have to put his lungs back in his chest. So I studied while he went to bed early.

Saturday- Elder Leavitt still coughing pretty hard in the morning, so we got permission to stay in again. I started and finished reading "Our Heritage" and read a good chunk of the Book of Mormon. We also went over the ward list with a member of the bishopric and got a lot of really good information from that meeting. We did the same with the Elders quorum president, bro Outhier. His wife has cousins living in Beijing named the Featherstones, figured you probably know them.

Sunday- Elder Leavitt is finally doing alright. We had PEC in the morning, and I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting about the sacrament and how important it is to remember what we're doing when we take it. After church we studied up for a member-missionary fireside and then met with a member in the ward so he could introduce us to his neighbor. We are going to go back on Tuesday to visit with him. The fireside was a really nice home. I mean, one of the most amazing houses I've been in, ever. Fountains all over the grounds and what amounts to Dad's dream of a piano room with a baby grand over-looking the valley. They also had a massive separate shed for the brothers model trains. He's been working on his set up there for upwards of 50 years, and it's pretty sweet. The fireside itself went pretty well. A lot of the more active families were out of town though, so we're going to try and do it again one of these days. 

So that was the week. We lost a couple days due to illness, but Elder Leavitt is all ready to go. This week we've set a goal to find 2 new investigators, and it's what we fasted for yesterday. We know that if we are exactly obedient, study hard, ride harder, and have faith the Lord will help us accomplish that goal. I hope you are all doing splendidly, and that the spirit is teaching you something each and every time you open the scriptures, I know it has taught me a lot this week. 

Joseph Smith truly was a prophet, and the Book of Mormon is literally the most important book that exists in the world. 

Love you all,

Elder Brett Whitney

Oct. 28

I apologize, I missed getting this posted last week.

"This will be a pretty short letter for this week, but I promise to reply to everyone's personal emails in greater detail.

This past week was just straight up weird. Here are some of the weird things that happened:

1. Last Tuesday I was emergency transferred from Glendale to the Creekside ward on the opposite end of the mission. The city name is Walnut, but the ward also covers parts of West Covina and La Puente.

2. I was companions with an Elder Bell for a few days, but today he got transferred out of Creekside.

3. In a few minutes I'll be meeting my new companion, Elder Leavitt. He has only been out 6 weeks longer than myself.

4. Elder Leavitt and I are essentially starting everything over (whitewashing) as if no work has been done in this area. Several AP's and many zone leaders have come out of this ward though, so it used to rock hardcore. 

So, I've basically spent the last 5 days learning how to survive, so that Elder Leavitt and I can learn to thrive. The last few days have been spent riding my bike over as much of the area as I possibly could, knocking on as many doors as we could get to (actually getting to the door here is harder than you would think, not to mention actually getting inside). Luckily, the members here are great and want to help us out. We live with a great family called the Helburgs, and they treat us really well. 

There's a lot we are going to have to learn about the area, and FAST. So, in great humility I ask everyone's prayers for Elder Leavitt and myself; for strength, motivation, and most importantly inspiration from our Heavenly Father to us. We need all the help we can get. 

I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Whitney