Hello everyone! We had a pretty busy week. Taught a good amount of
lessons, put lots of miles on the bikes, etc. Here's the break down
Monday 3/10- Monday evening we gave Carolyn a tour of the church. It
was kind of cool, because Adrian was there early for his lesson
afterwards, so he sat in on hers, too. That lesson went well. The
lesson with Adrian afterwards was also good. He's still trying to
overcome a few obstacles, but is pretty sure he wants to be baptized.
He is way excited for general conference. Then we taught Efrain about
prophets in the evening, and got him solidly committed to pray about
President Monson and Joseph Smith.
Tuesday- We met with Adrian for a long time in the morning. At the end
of the lesson he offered a really wonderful pray that made me cry.
But, we know he feels the spirit, and we were able to help clearly
identify what it feels like for him. It was the most interesting
description of a still small voice I've ever heard. He said, "During
the prayer, this room was not quiet. It wasn't loud, but it was not
quiet either." (We were in the chapel) So, that was a really great
experience. In the afternoon we made contact with a less active who
had his feelings hurt pretty bad by a member a long time ago. We told
him that he had the Elders on his side, and if anything like that
happens when he comes back to church, we will take care of it. I think
that meant a lot to him. In the evening we met with Orion, who got
baptized last August. He and his mom are kind of less active right
now, but when we told them we wanted to convert her boyfriend and the
other guys in the house with them, they were all for it. We'll see
what happens.
Wednesday - On Wednesday we went to the nether reaches of the ward and
didn't have a lot of luck. However, two awesome things still happened.
1. Efrain called us in the afternoon to tell us that he'd been praying
about "that Monson guy" all day in his truck, and that he felt really
good about it. So that's pretty awesome. 2. Adrian called us and said
that it was crazy how just praying was totally changing him. His
prayers were getting more meaningful, his desire to read the
scriptures and anything else about the gospel has increased
exponentially, and he is just happier all the time. He also wanted to
tell us that he prayed before work that his obstacles would be removed
and at work, someone traded their Sunday shift with him so he can go
to church again! Woot.
Thursday- I led my first district meeting as a district leader this
week. I think it went pretty good. My district is pretty small, and we
only have sisters, so yeah. We discussed the importance of members In
the work. Something I've realized about my area this past week is that
every single good investigator and active convert to the church was
found through members, not our own finding efforts. The members are
our most important tool in finding people to teach in fact, especially
since we don't tract in this mission. Some of those reading this live
in places where they don't have full time missionaries to help spread
the gospel. For you, it is even more critical to fulfill your
baptismal covenant and be a witness of Christ. That's something a lot
of people miss I think. Doing missionary work in some way is fact part
of the baptismal covenant, and something we will be held accountable
for in the end.
Friday - not much happened, I was feeling pretty sick for
most of the day. We did eat pizza though. You'd be surprised at how
little pizza we eat out here. At least I am anyways. We gave a woman
from Thailand who got baptized and fell away before the Book of Mormon
was in Thai a copy of the Book of Mormon in her native tongue. She
looked sincerely grateful to have the chance to read it in her native
language, so that was a neat experience. Hopefully she gets herself to
church soon.
Saturday - we were supposed to take some youth from the
stake with us for a few hours, but they flaked out on us. Apparently
that happened to a lot of missionaries though. We taught Adrian again,
this time really focusing in on baptism and being worthy. He is
worried about some things, but really wants it, so it's still going
pretty good. In the afternoon we tried to track down a lot of people
but nobody was home. In the evening we met with a long time less
active who emphatically said he will never come back, even though he
knows it's true. So...yeah. There's nothing to do with people like
that, except maybe hope things work out eventually. It's pretty sad.
Sunday- Adrian was at sacrament meeting, as were several less
active/recent converts. It was a really great Sunday for Adrian,
because both speakers talked about the atonement, and in priesthood we
talked about the sacredness of the sacrament. I got a lot out of it
too. In the second hour, we helped out the primary with sharing time.
Sister Domine asked each of the missionaries to share the story of
someone who had a personal experience with the resurrected Savior.
There was Thomas, Mary Magdalene, a Nephite woman, and I was Joseph
Smith. It was a very interesting experience to try and put myself in a
prophets shoes and try to figure out what Joseph would tell those
primary kids if he was really there. As I did my little performance, I
had my testimony of the first vision reconfirmed to me among some
other things. It was intense, at least it was for me. Hopefully, some
of the kids got something out of it too. They were a well behaved
bunch and seemed like they were paying really good attention.
And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this
is the testimony, last of all, which [ I ] give of him: That he lives!
(D&C 76:22)
Elder Brett Whitney
Monday, March 17, 2014
March 10
So this last Tuesday marked 6 months of my mission come and gone. Many
missionaries "celebrate" by burning a tie. My companion is pretty
annoyed that I didn't. First of all, he suggested that I just burn one
I don't like. I don't have a tie I don't like. Why would I have a tie
I dislike? Or spend money on one, just to burn it? It's stupid.
Secondly, president puts missionaries who do the burning thing in his
plane shaped trust box, pointed to Salt Lake City. Thirdly, why would
I celebrate six months? That is also stupid. Anyways, on to stuff that
actually happened.
So last week I said my district was all elders and that we stayed in
the old zone. Well, they actually messed up. I'm really in the new
zone and my district is all sisters. Such is life.
Monday 3/3- All of our evening appointments fell through, a common
motif for the rest of the week.
Tuesday- in the morning we taught Adrian about some of the "Do"
commandments. Prayer every day, read the scriptures, come to church,
etc. He is progressing really well! We also found out that one of the
wards recent converts was going to be in the area during the week, but
not on weekends. He's been having a real tough time lately, and was
glad to see us. Elder Justensen and him get along because they're both
welders. In the evening we met with a VERY sad less active, that just
needs to come to church. Once his wife gets over her walking pneumonia
we will be teaching them. We also caught up with Andre and Lina (who
marched DCI with the velvet knights back in '88 and saw the
championship performance of the scouts malagueña, she was also at
finals the next year when SCV won with phantom of the opera. She's
pretty cool) and taught them the restoration.
Wednesday- when Wednesday started, we had like 5 really solid
appointments. By noon on Wednesday, we had 5 cancelled appointments.
It was a total bummer. BUT. we did give Miguel (the recent convert
from yesterday) a blessing. I acted as voice, and still can't believe
I said some of what I said but hey, it's not me, it's the Spirit. It's
just kind of mind-boggling. But we will see. We also saw Efrain and
had a good lesson with him. He's cool.
Thursday- on Thursday we had zone meeting and really focused on the 8
fundamental lessons as we call them. (Our purpose, revelation through
prayer, reading the Book of Mormon, and church attendance, teach
people not lessons, how to begin teaching, role of the Holy Ghost on
conversion, and we invite they commit we follow up). It was good. Due
to illness we didn't do anything for the rest of the day. It makes me
sad when that happens.
Friday- we did our weekly planning and then we went to teach Andre
and Lina about the Book of Mormon. The way we teach it now is like so:
We read the first and last two paragraphs of the introduction and
commit them to read and prayer right there. Then we start reading the
Book of Mormon with them, starting at "the first book of Nephi, his
reign and ministry." We go through the first 12 verses with them,
continually testifying of the blessings and awesomeness of the book.
We tell them how they are like Nephi and Lehi, and promise them that
verse 12 is true. And almost everyone, Andre and Lina included, get to
the end of the lesson and say something like, "before I was kind eh
about reading, but now I am really excited!" It's pretty sweet. After
that lesson we taught Adrian at the church. It was cool, because the
stake relief society was setting up for some activity and when we got
there we found him (Adrian) already helping them get stuff set up.
They actually really needed the help though, so we helped them too. We
had a very intense, personal lesson with Adrian afterwards, the
details of which I cannot share. But know this, he is getting close to
baptism :)
Saturday- Met with Adrain, and had the same result as last night.
After helping cleanup the stake relief society activity (which appears
to have been a success), we rode around all day trying to find people
and met with little success. There just wasn't anybody around.
Sunday- Efrain was at church again, praise The Lord. Adrian didn't
make it though, he said he got suddenly sick. Andre and Lina were also
no shows. In the afternoon we tracked down Carolyn, whom we haven't
been able to teach for a while. We set up a tour with her for this
afternoon. That should be good.
That's it from my end, hope you guys are all doing well. The church is
truly gods kingdom on earth today!
Elder brett Whitney
missionaries "celebrate" by burning a tie. My companion is pretty
annoyed that I didn't. First of all, he suggested that I just burn one
I don't like. I don't have a tie I don't like. Why would I have a tie
I dislike? Or spend money on one, just to burn it? It's stupid.
Secondly, president puts missionaries who do the burning thing in his
plane shaped trust box, pointed to Salt Lake City. Thirdly, why would
I celebrate six months? That is also stupid. Anyways, on to stuff that
actually happened.
So last week I said my district was all elders and that we stayed in
the old zone. Well, they actually messed up. I'm really in the new
zone and my district is all sisters. Such is life.
Monday 3/3- All of our evening appointments fell through, a common
motif for the rest of the week.
Tuesday- in the morning we taught Adrian about some of the "Do"
commandments. Prayer every day, read the scriptures, come to church,
etc. He is progressing really well! We also found out that one of the
wards recent converts was going to be in the area during the week, but
not on weekends. He's been having a real tough time lately, and was
glad to see us. Elder Justensen and him get along because they're both
welders. In the evening we met with a VERY sad less active, that just
needs to come to church. Once his wife gets over her walking pneumonia
we will be teaching them. We also caught up with Andre and Lina (who
marched DCI with the velvet knights back in '88 and saw the
championship performance of the scouts malagueña, she was also at
finals the next year when SCV won with phantom of the opera. She's
pretty cool) and taught them the restoration.
Wednesday- when Wednesday started, we had like 5 really solid
appointments. By noon on Wednesday, we had 5 cancelled appointments.
It was a total bummer. BUT. we did give Miguel (the recent convert
from yesterday) a blessing. I acted as voice, and still can't believe
I said some of what I said but hey, it's not me, it's the Spirit. It's
just kind of mind-boggling. But we will see. We also saw Efrain and
had a good lesson with him. He's cool.
Thursday- on Thursday we had zone meeting and really focused on the 8
fundamental lessons as we call them. (Our purpose, revelation through
prayer, reading the Book of Mormon, and church attendance, teach
people not lessons, how to begin teaching, role of the Holy Ghost on
conversion, and we invite they commit we follow up). It was good. Due
to illness we didn't do anything for the rest of the day. It makes me
sad when that happens.
Friday- we did our weekly planning and then we went to teach Andre
and Lina about the Book of Mormon. The way we teach it now is like so:
We read the first and last two paragraphs of the introduction and
commit them to read and prayer right there. Then we start reading the
Book of Mormon with them, starting at "the first book of Nephi, his
reign and ministry." We go through the first 12 verses with them,
continually testifying of the blessings and awesomeness of the book.
We tell them how they are like Nephi and Lehi, and promise them that
verse 12 is true. And almost everyone, Andre and Lina included, get to
the end of the lesson and say something like, "before I was kind eh
about reading, but now I am really excited!" It's pretty sweet. After
that lesson we taught Adrian at the church. It was cool, because the
stake relief society was setting up for some activity and when we got
there we found him (Adrian) already helping them get stuff set up.
They actually really needed the help though, so we helped them too. We
had a very intense, personal lesson with Adrian afterwards, the
details of which I cannot share. But know this, he is getting close to
baptism :)
Saturday- Met with Adrain, and had the same result as last night.
After helping cleanup the stake relief society activity (which appears
to have been a success), we rode around all day trying to find people
and met with little success. There just wasn't anybody around.
Sunday- Efrain was at church again, praise The Lord. Adrian didn't
make it though, he said he got suddenly sick. Andre and Lina were also
no shows. In the afternoon we tracked down Carolyn, whom we haven't
been able to teach for a while. We set up a tour with her for this
afternoon. That should be good.
That's it from my end, hope you guys are all doing well. The church is
truly gods kingdom on earth today!
Elder brett Whitney
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
March 3, Dang those truffles were delicious, why didn't I open those up sooner?
Hello family, friends, and fellow-citizens in the Gospel!
It is the beginning of a new transfer here in the California Arcadia
mission, and somebody decided it would be a good idea to let me be a
district leader in the newly created Hacienda Heights North zone.
We'll see how that shakes out. Hopefully not too bad. I have the
korean elders and zone leaders in my district; all of whom are among
my favorite missionaries in the world. So that's cool. One of the
Koreans was my district leader when I first got transferred out here.
So we appear to have come full circle.
Monday 2/24- after an uneventful pday, we taught Carolyn who we
contacted the night before. She was an investigator several years ago
but for reasons unbeknownst to us and her, she was dropped. We taught
her the restoration and she really liked it. She said she would be
baptized. What was cool was what happened after she prayed. Her first
question was, "i have to quit drinking and smoking don't i?" We had no
idea she did those things, but the spirit did. Stuff like happens a
lot actually, and it's pretty sweet. That's when you know your
investigators are receiving revelation.
Tuesday- so there's a family in the ward whose dad is traveling for
the government all the time, and they move a lot. They have a million
kids and the mom is a super hero. They are moving internationally this
Friday. Sound familiar? Needless to say, I have always tried to keep
tabs on what we could do to help out this sister (it has ranged from
getting cupcakes for her kids at a baptism to singing in sacrament
because she wanted me too). Knowing that they were gearing for a move
to Egypt later this week, we went by to offer what service we could.
After cleaning some carpets for them, they also emptied some of their
fridge on us. It's a bummer that they're leaving, but I'm glad we were
able to help put a bit. After visiting them we went to a less active
and had a short lesson with her. We got to hear her conversion story
and will be working with her from now on to help her come back to
church. She says she lacks motivation, but that's code for she was
never fully converted.
Wednesday- in the morning we taught Carolyn about the Book of Mormon,
and committed her to coming to church. In the afternoon we taught a
younger guy named Adam. I may have mentioned him a few weeks ago.
Anyways, today we taught him the restoration, and he really enjoyed
it. We helped a sister in the ward fix some bikes in the evening
before going to dinner with the family we lived with during Christmas.
That was gooooooooood. And I don't even like food.
Thursday- we taught Adam, Albert, Virgil, Adrian, and Laura and Sarah.
It was nuts. I've never taught that many lessons in one day before.
Adam, Albert, and Adrian all went well and are doing pretty good in
the gospel. Virgil has taken to deflecting "inspired questions" with
politics. We are trying to figure what to do about that. Laura and
Sarah dropped us. "The whole prophet thing" was just too much for
them. You'd think hardcore Catholics would be okay with that, given
they have the pope. Oh well.
Friday- Thursday night it started raining. It rained all day Friday,
on and off on Saturday, and a little on Sunday. Parts of the mission
were super flooded and sliding off the mountains. We were okay in that
respect. It did rain pretty hard though. A little bit of hail too. We
did our weekly planning at the church this week so we could eat the
leftovers the snyders gave us on Wednesday. (We left them in the
kitchen so we didn't have to carry them home. The snyders are close to
the church). Those were still delicious. In the evening we visited a
less active member, bro. Erbe. His power went out while we were there.
It was creepy. But we made it home alive, so that's nice.
Saturday- because of the continuos rain, we walked all day Saturday.
We walked a long ways too, and nobody was around. It was a pretty big
bummer. But we had dinner at the assistant ward mission leaders house,
so that was good. He is young guy who might be playing at USU next
football season. I think that would be cool. Anyways, we had
correlation over dinner. That night we awaited transfer calls, but
instead of a transfer, I was notified that I had been chosen as one of
the district leaders. That was a big surprise.
Sunday - on Sunday we had TWO of the seven people we are currently
teaching at sacrament meeting, Adrian and Efrain. Efrain actually
brought his baptist sister who looked pretty uncomfortable, and made
him take her home early. So that was a bummer. But Adrain stayed all
three hours, participated in classes, the whole shebang. He really
liked it. After studies, we taught Efrain about the word of wisdom. It
took some convincing from the spirit, but he eventually committed to
live it. W are teaching him again tonight.
Love you guys! Have an awesome week!
Elder Brett Whitney
It is the beginning of a new transfer here in the California Arcadia
mission, and somebody decided it would be a good idea to let me be a
district leader in the newly created Hacienda Heights North zone.
We'll see how that shakes out. Hopefully not too bad. I have the
korean elders and zone leaders in my district; all of whom are among
my favorite missionaries in the world. So that's cool. One of the
Koreans was my district leader when I first got transferred out here.
So we appear to have come full circle.
Monday 2/24- after an uneventful pday, we taught Carolyn who we
contacted the night before. She was an investigator several years ago
but for reasons unbeknownst to us and her, she was dropped. We taught
her the restoration and she really liked it. She said she would be
baptized. What was cool was what happened after she prayed. Her first
question was, "i have to quit drinking and smoking don't i?" We had no
idea she did those things, but the spirit did. Stuff like happens a
lot actually, and it's pretty sweet. That's when you know your
investigators are receiving revelation.
Tuesday- so there's a family in the ward whose dad is traveling for
the government all the time, and they move a lot. They have a million
kids and the mom is a super hero. They are moving internationally this
Friday. Sound familiar? Needless to say, I have always tried to keep
tabs on what we could do to help out this sister (it has ranged from
getting cupcakes for her kids at a baptism to singing in sacrament
because she wanted me too). Knowing that they were gearing for a move
to Egypt later this week, we went by to offer what service we could.
After cleaning some carpets for them, they also emptied some of their
fridge on us. It's a bummer that they're leaving, but I'm glad we were
able to help put a bit. After visiting them we went to a less active
and had a short lesson with her. We got to hear her conversion story
and will be working with her from now on to help her come back to
church. She says she lacks motivation, but that's code for she was
never fully converted.
Wednesday- in the morning we taught Carolyn about the Book of Mormon,
and committed her to coming to church. In the afternoon we taught a
younger guy named Adam. I may have mentioned him a few weeks ago.
Anyways, today we taught him the restoration, and he really enjoyed
it. We helped a sister in the ward fix some bikes in the evening
before going to dinner with the family we lived with during Christmas.
That was gooooooooood. And I don't even like food.
Thursday- we taught Adam, Albert, Virgil, Adrian, and Laura and Sarah.
It was nuts. I've never taught that many lessons in one day before.
Adam, Albert, and Adrian all went well and are doing pretty good in
the gospel. Virgil has taken to deflecting "inspired questions" with
politics. We are trying to figure what to do about that. Laura and
Sarah dropped us. "The whole prophet thing" was just too much for
them. You'd think hardcore Catholics would be okay with that, given
they have the pope. Oh well.
Friday- Thursday night it started raining. It rained all day Friday,
on and off on Saturday, and a little on Sunday. Parts of the mission
were super flooded and sliding off the mountains. We were okay in that
respect. It did rain pretty hard though. A little bit of hail too. We
did our weekly planning at the church this week so we could eat the
leftovers the snyders gave us on Wednesday. (We left them in the
kitchen so we didn't have to carry them home. The snyders are close to
the church). Those were still delicious. In the evening we visited a
less active member, bro. Erbe. His power went out while we were there.
It was creepy. But we made it home alive, so that's nice.
Saturday- because of the continuos rain, we walked all day Saturday.
We walked a long ways too, and nobody was around. It was a pretty big
bummer. But we had dinner at the assistant ward mission leaders house,
so that was good. He is young guy who might be playing at USU next
football season. I think that would be cool. Anyways, we had
correlation over dinner. That night we awaited transfer calls, but
instead of a transfer, I was notified that I had been chosen as one of
the district leaders. That was a big surprise.
Sunday - on Sunday we had TWO of the seven people we are currently
teaching at sacrament meeting, Adrian and Efrain. Efrain actually
brought his baptist sister who looked pretty uncomfortable, and made
him take her home early. So that was a bummer. But Adrain stayed all
three hours, participated in classes, the whole shebang. He really
liked it. After studies, we taught Efrain about the word of wisdom. It
took some convincing from the spirit, but he eventually committed to
live it. W are teaching him again tonight.
Love you guys! Have an awesome week!
Elder Brett Whitney
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Feb. 24 Week 5 of transfer 4
It is with great sadness that I am forced to acknowledge that after
this coming week I will have been on my mission for 6 months already.
Which means I have what amounts to a sister mission left. No offense
to the sister missionaries, but that's lame. Anyways.
Monday 2/17- we hung out with the hacienda heights elders at the stake
center for our pday, then at 6 we met with Adrian at the church. At
this meeting we talked about the plan of salvation. He immediately
pointed out that we have no "hell" in the traditional Christian sense
of the hot place. That's one of my favorite questions, because it
gives us a great chance to re-testify of why we came to Earth, what
our purpose is, and how much Heavenly Father loves His children. When
people understand that the meaning of hell and damnation in the
scriptures is a literal damming of our spiritual progression, not
consignment to life with the devil, they understand the plan of
happiness much more fully, and are usually very eager to kept baptized
in order to continue their progression.
Tuesday- In the afternoon we did some service for a less-active lady
and worked in her garden/pruned her trees. She gave us the information
for her brother down in Mexico, so we could send it to the
missionaries down there. Which is easy when you have an iPad. Just
saying. iPads. Anyways. In the evening we taught Adrian again. It was
a pretty short lesson, but afterwards he stayed at the church and
talked to Bishop for several hours. Apparently it went pretty well,
and we got some good intel from the bishop about his concerns right
now.
Wednesday- in the afternoon we went to the nether regions of the area
in order to find some less actives we've never been to. We taught one
guy who is 92 and stands up just as quick as we do. His wife passed
away recently, and he did a lot to take care of her in the last few
years of her life. That's what pulled him away from church in the
first place and now he says he's just "taking it easy." He has some
good friends in the ward though, so maybe he'll get coming back pretty
soon. The other lady we found up there grew up in the church, but for
whatever reason says she just never felt it. She's got some other
stuff going that probably prevents her from gaining a testimony as
well. She did express a firm desire to get one though, so we are going
to be teaching her very regularly.
Thursday- on Thursday we went all over the place and didn't have a
whole lot of luck finding anybody. But that night we we're finally
able to teach a potential investigator we've had for quite some time.
She is a really cool woman, and a lot of fun to talk with. She is a
pretty devout catholic, but so was most of the ward here before they
got converted. Hopefully things continue to go pretty well on that
front.
Friday- we had to leave fairly early in order to get to zone
conference in El Monte, conveniently the farthest building from our
area in the zone. Anyways, zone conference was actually really good.
One of my trainers, elder Winfield, is now my zone leader here! I
don't know if I mentioned that last week. Anyways, I love the guy and
it's awesome to have him nearby again. We talked a lot about how to
teach the restoration, the Book of Mormon, and helping peoples get to
church. President told us that if when an investigator says they'll do
something, and we can tell they aren't sincere, to do the following.
"As a representative of Jesus Christ, and as someone with the gift of
the Holy Ghost, I am entitled to something called the gift of
discernment. Basically, the spirit lets us know how things really are.
And I get the feeling that you won't actually be at church this
Sunday. Can you tell me why that is?" We spent the Evening riding
busses home.
Saturday- after weekly planning, we had a lesson with a less active in
the ward from Thailand. We found out that she has never been able to
read the Book of Mormon in Thai so we are getting her one as quick as
we can. When we told her that, she really opened up, and I think that
she will come to church soon.
Sunday- Efrain was once again at church, even though we weren't able
to teach him this week (he had a lot of work, which is a blessing
actually). The guy just about made me cry like 6 different times as he
recognized things we already taught him, participated and even lead
some discussions. The kicker was when he declared that he going to be
proud to call himself a Mormon, because nobody else does what we do.
And nobody else has the authority. He's awesome. There are still a few
things we have to work out before he can baptized, but hopefully it
will work out pretty quickly. Sunday afternoon we picked up a new
investigator and also set up a lot of appointments for this week.
Hopefully all those will actually come through. One of them is with a
former investigator tonight. I'm excited for that.
I hope you're all doing wonderfully, and that your testimonies
continue to grow. Remember,if you don't take care of it and nurture
it, it can die very very fast.
Love you all!
Elder Brett Whitney
this coming week I will have been on my mission for 6 months already.
Which means I have what amounts to a sister mission left. No offense
to the sister missionaries, but that's lame. Anyways.
Monday 2/17- we hung out with the hacienda heights elders at the stake
center for our pday, then at 6 we met with Adrian at the church. At
this meeting we talked about the plan of salvation. He immediately
pointed out that we have no "hell" in the traditional Christian sense
of the hot place. That's one of my favorite questions, because it
gives us a great chance to re-testify of why we came to Earth, what
our purpose is, and how much Heavenly Father loves His children. When
people understand that the meaning of hell and damnation in the
scriptures is a literal damming of our spiritual progression, not
consignment to life with the devil, they understand the plan of
happiness much more fully, and are usually very eager to kept baptized
in order to continue their progression.
Tuesday- In the afternoon we did some service for a less-active lady
and worked in her garden/pruned her trees. She gave us the information
for her brother down in Mexico, so we could send it to the
missionaries down there. Which is easy when you have an iPad. Just
saying. iPads. Anyways. In the evening we taught Adrian again. It was
a pretty short lesson, but afterwards he stayed at the church and
talked to Bishop for several hours. Apparently it went pretty well,
and we got some good intel from the bishop about his concerns right
now.
Wednesday- in the afternoon we went to the nether regions of the area
in order to find some less actives we've never been to. We taught one
guy who is 92 and stands up just as quick as we do. His wife passed
away recently, and he did a lot to take care of her in the last few
years of her life. That's what pulled him away from church in the
first place and now he says he's just "taking it easy." He has some
good friends in the ward though, so maybe he'll get coming back pretty
soon. The other lady we found up there grew up in the church, but for
whatever reason says she just never felt it. She's got some other
stuff going that probably prevents her from gaining a testimony as
well. She did express a firm desire to get one though, so we are going
to be teaching her very regularly.
Thursday- on Thursday we went all over the place and didn't have a
whole lot of luck finding anybody. But that night we we're finally
able to teach a potential investigator we've had for quite some time.
She is a really cool woman, and a lot of fun to talk with. She is a
pretty devout catholic, but so was most of the ward here before they
got converted. Hopefully things continue to go pretty well on that
front.
Friday- we had to leave fairly early in order to get to zone
conference in El Monte, conveniently the farthest building from our
area in the zone. Anyways, zone conference was actually really good.
One of my trainers, elder Winfield, is now my zone leader here! I
don't know if I mentioned that last week. Anyways, I love the guy and
it's awesome to have him nearby again. We talked a lot about how to
teach the restoration, the Book of Mormon, and helping peoples get to
church. President told us that if when an investigator says they'll do
something, and we can tell they aren't sincere, to do the following.
"As a representative of Jesus Christ, and as someone with the gift of
the Holy Ghost, I am entitled to something called the gift of
discernment. Basically, the spirit lets us know how things really are.
And I get the feeling that you won't actually be at church this
Sunday. Can you tell me why that is?" We spent the Evening riding
busses home.
Saturday- after weekly planning, we had a lesson with a less active in
the ward from Thailand. We found out that she has never been able to
read the Book of Mormon in Thai so we are getting her one as quick as
we can. When we told her that, she really opened up, and I think that
she will come to church soon.
Sunday- Efrain was once again at church, even though we weren't able
to teach him this week (he had a lot of work, which is a blessing
actually). The guy just about made me cry like 6 different times as he
recognized things we already taught him, participated and even lead
some discussions. The kicker was when he declared that he going to be
proud to call himself a Mormon, because nobody else does what we do.
And nobody else has the authority. He's awesome. There are still a few
things we have to work out before he can baptized, but hopefully it
will work out pretty quickly. Sunday afternoon we picked up a new
investigator and also set up a lot of appointments for this week.
Hopefully all those will actually come through. One of them is with a
former investigator tonight. I'm excited for that.
I hope you're all doing wonderfully, and that your testimonies
continue to grow. Remember,if you don't take care of it and nurture
it, it can die very very fast.
Love you all!
Elder Brett Whitney
Friday, February 21, 2014
Feb. 17, 2014
Hello all! Sorry that last week there was no blog update. This week's
may be kind of short.
So last Sunday we were at home eating lunch after church. Then we got
a call from the missionaries in the ward that meets after us. Someone
in our ward boundaries had just waltzed into the building asking to be
taught! Then our next appointment cancelled on us, but our ride for
that now cancelled appointment just showed up right on time to take us
to this guy at the church. So we zoomed over there and met our good
friend Adrian.
We taught him the restoration, and the whole time he was just
like,"yeah this all makes so much sense!" So that was pretty sweet. We
have another lesson with him tonight and hopefully will have a solid
baptismal date set up for him. That's pretty exciting.
Another exciting thing is that I am writing this email from my new
iPad mini. The whole mission got them last week, and we use them for
just about everything now. So if you're ever in the Arcadia mission
and you see missionaries, they won't have paper scriptures on them
anymore. Don't freak out though, neither does the prophet or any other
general authority.
Last Thursday we had to cancel a few appointments because of some
police altercations very close to our home. Apparently a guy got shot
in a shopping complex nearby us. It lasted for a really long time
though.
Last Friday we visited a 92 year old less active member. His wife
passed away a few months ago, and that's why he hasn't been coming to
church. So hopefully with a better understanding of the plan of
salvation he'll start coming.
On Saturday the district came on exchanges with me in my area. We
picked up a new investigator names Douglas. He is part of a part
member less active family. He said once his wife gets back from a trip
to Peru he will come to church with us. So that was exciting.
Sunday we had a ward mission breakfast which was quite delicious.
Efrain was at church again, and he's doing really well. He is planning
on getting baptized on March 15, so I'm pretty psyched for that. It's
after transfers so hopefully I'm still here to see it.
Love you all!
Elder Whitney
may be kind of short.
So last Sunday we were at home eating lunch after church. Then we got
a call from the missionaries in the ward that meets after us. Someone
in our ward boundaries had just waltzed into the building asking to be
taught! Then our next appointment cancelled on us, but our ride for
that now cancelled appointment just showed up right on time to take us
to this guy at the church. So we zoomed over there and met our good
friend Adrian.
We taught him the restoration, and the whole time he was just
like,"yeah this all makes so much sense!" So that was pretty sweet. We
have another lesson with him tonight and hopefully will have a solid
baptismal date set up for him. That's pretty exciting.
Another exciting thing is that I am writing this email from my new
iPad mini. The whole mission got them last week, and we use them for
just about everything now. So if you're ever in the Arcadia mission
and you see missionaries, they won't have paper scriptures on them
anymore. Don't freak out though, neither does the prophet or any other
general authority.
Last Thursday we had to cancel a few appointments because of some
police altercations very close to our home. Apparently a guy got shot
in a shopping complex nearby us. It lasted for a really long time
though.
Last Friday we visited a 92 year old less active member. His wife
passed away a few months ago, and that's why he hasn't been coming to
church. So hopefully with a better understanding of the plan of
salvation he'll start coming.
On Saturday the district came on exchanges with me in my area. We
picked up a new investigator names Douglas. He is part of a part
member less active family. He said once his wife gets back from a trip
to Peru he will come to church with us. So that was exciting.
Sunday we had a ward mission breakfast which was quite delicious.
Efrain was at church again, and he's doing really well. He is planning
on getting baptized on March 15, so I'm pretty psyched for that. It's
after transfers so hopefully I'm still here to see it.
Love you all!
Elder Whitney
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Feb. 4 Lots of contacts not many lessons
Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a very happy Chinese new year! Ours was pretty normal, didn't really do anything. Although, last night we had pretty good chinese food with some members (who weren't chinese ironically).
Monday 01/27- We taught Efrain last monday and set him with a baptismal date! Woohoo! Bro Peck, the ward mission leader really helped him understand some stuff that he'd been holding back from us. So that was pretty great.
Tuesday- On Tuesday we visited a semi-less-active widow in the ward. it was really great timing too because it was her deceased husband's birthday a few days before and she was feeling pretty lonely. So hopefully we brightened up her day. Not a lot of doors opened up after that visit.
Wednesday- On Wednesday we taught Virgil again and asked him if he would get baptized. That was an interesting discussion, to say the least. In short, we're still working on him. I don't think he believes that he can change right now. That evening we stopped by Orion who is a recent convert of the wards. We talked about the plan of salvation with him and his mother who is less active. I think we will see her at church pretty soon.
Thursday- On Thursday it started raining for the first time in like about two months it seems like. So we got stranded out far away from our house. Which was a bummer. We did eventually need to get to an appointment with Efrain, so we had to ride in the rain and get pretty wet. When we met with Efrain, we talked about what needs to happen for him to be ready for baptism, the importance of the Holy Ghost, etc. It was pretty good, and he understood the Holy Ghost a lot better and the difference between its power and the gift thereof.
Friday- On Friday we had our weekly planning, as per the usual. We have a lot of pretty good potentials right now, and hopefully we can turn several into investigators this coming week. I think it's gonna be, and I quote for the sake of Lindsay, "Totally Awesome!"
Friday evening a guy named Al was a no show to our appointment because we got stuck at work. That was a bummer.
Saturday- On Saturday morning we tried to do some contacting at the local swap meet. Turns out English speakers don't generally go to the swap meet. So that was an out of country experience. Go figure. That afternoon we had papusas at Efrain's place, which were delicious. I had never had one before but at that time I ate like 6. So there will be more of those in my future. After that we saw the Bates again. Stephen wasn't around, but we got to talk to Rose a bit more about what she remembered from church and what not. I'm afraid their interest has waned.
Sunday- Church was really good Sunday, except Efrain was a no show for the first time since we've been teaching him. We still don't really know what happened. Hopefully he just got sick like the rest of the city has been. We set up a few appointments with some less actives, but didn't really get in anywhere because of the Super Bowl, which I hear wasn't so super. We did surprise one by showing up again though. he had previously invited us in, gave us a spiel on why he wouldn't return, and didn't expect us back again. Showed him wrong. I do think that ultimately it touched him a little bit though. We'll see what happens there.
That's all for now, hope you're all doing wonderfully! Love you all!
Elder Brett Whitney
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Mon. Jan 27: Week something of transfer something else
*Sorry for not getting this posted sooner. We can't get to this blog without a VPN and the VPN has not been working all week.*
Hello all! I hope you're all doing fantastically and what not. People here have been crazy sick all the time, so I also hope you're all healthy :)
Hello all! I hope you're all doing fantastically and what not. People here have been crazy sick all the time, so I also hope you're all healthy :)
Monday 01/20- After our various p-day shenanigans and a hilarious incident with a juice box from 1999 and Elder Justensen, we went to a referral that the Helbergs gave us. We had been there last week, and the son expressed pretty high interest in learning about the church, but needed to talk to his parents about it first. So, we went there to find the results. Well. The Dad answered the door. Turns out they attend the church in the area that is the largest creator and distributor of anti-Mormon literature in the world. He said that our belief that we can literally all become like God was ridiculous and false. I was like "wellllllll, Psalms 82:6 pretty much says we can." He said I was misquoting it (was not http://www.lds.org/scriptures/
Tuesday- In the afternoon we did a service project for a less active/part member household. Lots and lots of weeding. It was fun though, and Elder justensen really enjoyed the chance to do some manual labor again. They really appreciated it though, and hopefully we can make something happen there because of it. Service is great! Tuesday night, we had another lesson with Efrain. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then had a very long talk geared towards trying to set a goal date for his baptism. When we left he still hadn't set a date, but right after we finished planning that night he called us and said that he wanted to set a date the next time we had a lesson! Just shows that the Spirit keeps teaching when the missionaries are gone.
Wednesday- In the afternoon our only appointment for the day cancelled, so we tried some less actives. Didn't have much luck. Elder Justensen really hates the ones who open the door, see us, and close it without saying anything. I just think it's pretty sad. Wednesday night we were both getting pretty sick so we retired early so that hopefully we would be feeling better for the morrow.
Thursday- Our plan to try and dodge the sickness did not prevail. I was about as sick as sick gets and we didn't go out at all. I slept just about all day. Don't worry though, now we are both fine.
Friday- Friday morning a potential investigator texted us saying she wasn't interested anymore and that she didn't want to meet that afternoon. Which was a bummer. But we were both not nearly as sick as we were yesterday and that was a blessing. We did our weekly planning in the afternoon, and that night we had a birthday party for Efrain! It was cool, because they just invited us and two other sets of missionaries. After some delicious cheesecake we sang primary songs and a few hymns. It was very fun, and Efrain really enjoyed it.
Saturday- Saturday morning Elder J was feeling pretty sick again, so I read most of the synoptic gospels while he slept for a few hours. We went in the afternoon and guess who we finally found again. The Bates! Hooray! We helped move a very heavy table out of their house and a new one in. It was a really great chance to reconnect with them. Saturday night we talked to a less active who was in the Army for 11 years. He was real nice to us, didn't have anything negative to say about the church (which is unusual round here) so I have high hopes that we can start teaching him this week.
Sunday- We had Efrain and the Duenas family at church again. Bro Peck taught gospel principles which really made Efrain happy. He really loved Bro Peck when he first came but hadn't seen him ever since then because Bro Peck had been out of town. So that was good. After Church we did some role-plays with some of the RM's in the singles ward. We were practicing contacting, and one of them took the "I believe in science" route. Which is not altogether uncommon. I decided to try something I'd never tried before. I cited the 2nd law which says that in an isolated system, entrapy only increases. Yet, if one subscribes to any of the scientific models of the origins of the Earth and life, they would be forced to admit that entrapy has not increased on our planet over time, but rather has decreased. Clearly something isn't right there! My own personal belief is that the 2nd law is true, but that the traditional theory of the Earth as an isolated system is incorrect. And why aren't we an isolated system? Because God is there! Because He plays a role in everything that happens in our universe. Because His Son created the Earth. Admittedly, I used it on a member only pretending to be a nonmember, but still. I'm going to officially use it on the streets now.
Sunday evening the ward had a double baptism for children of record. We went even though none of our investigators were planning on going. It turned out to be a very good thing though, both families really appreciated that we were there, as did the Bishop. Baptisms are pretty great.
That's where things are at on my end. Not a lot of lessons, but that's because of illness. this next week should be pretty sweet. Hopefully we are able to set Efrain with a baptismal date tonight! I love you all, keep being awesome :)
Love,
Elder Whitney
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