Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Lovely Little Chat

I was able to "chat" with Jay today.

Mom: So you're leaving on Monday?

Jay: Of course I am! I have to get up a two and my plane leaves at six.

Mom: I can't believe it's really time for you to go, but I'm so excited for you!

Jay: Yah, I'm so excited! I hope I get a native companion!

Mom: From what I hear on the Missionary Mom emails you probably will. Do you think that will be a little lonely, that there will be no one to speak English with?

Jay: No, I want it to be that way so I will learn the language faster.

Mom: I'm so proud of you. I've been praying real hard that you will not be afraid to speak Spanish. That stopped me sometimes on my mission.

Jay: You know what? I was afraid to speak Spanish until about four weeks in. I hope you know how thankful I am for all of your prayers and thank you for not sending that book to me. (He wanted me to send "The Joseph Smith Papers" and I told him that I didn't feel good about him having that on his mission. I felt that it was a bit "deep" for a missionary. That he should probably concentrate on just the basics.) It's just ever since I've been here I wanted to find out everything I can. I have developed such a desire to learn.

Mom: You make my Mommy heart so proud. I 'm having a hard time typing through my tears. I love you so much. I have to go! (I am at work afterall!) XXOO

Jay: Ok ill talk to you later. I have to do the washer dryer trick. :) BYE!!!

MTC Recap

Well it’s my last week in the MTC!!! I got my flight plans last Friday! I leave at six in the morning with a two hour layover in Texas. I’ll be sending my photo card home so you can add some pictures onto my blog.

Man! Nothing really happens here! I’m sure that will change when I get to Mexico. I guess Ill just go over the statistics of my stay here at the MTC.

I’ve spent 56 days here and it doesn't feel like it was that long.

I’ve eaten roughly 168 meals

21 people asked if i was from the colonies.

I’ve had three restless nights

I’ve lost my mind twice.

I’ve learned all conjugations in Spanish in seven weeks.

My companion said that he loved me 23 times

I said that I loved him 5 times

I’ve sat at least 30 feet from 4 apostles and 3 general authorities.

I went to salt lake.

I scared a Mexican

I scared an islamian.

I scared a frenchian.

I scared myself.

I’ve read the book of mormon 1 1/2 times since I’ve been here.

I’ve read half of the bible (in Spanish)

and I’ve never cried so much in my life and felt good about it.

Well ill just say that I am very excited to leave and ill be sure to take a bunch of pictures and send them immediately when I get there.

Amo,
Élder Whetten

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Two weeks to go!

Ok so I have like two weeks till I’m gone. Woo hoo!! I can’t wait to get to Mexico!

Well Elder Ballard spoke to us yesterday. It was a really inspiring talk.

Oh and mom you are like the only person i know that could write the word books nine times in one paragraph. Speaking of books, have you found that book I requested of you? Or have you forgotten? You haven’t said anything about it yet.

I got grandmas package. Thank you very much. I just hope i can finish it all before I leave. I'm back to 130 pounds...sorry.

My Spanish skills really jumped a lot this week. Mostly because i have been trying to speak it all day every day.

I'm trying to make this a decent letter in length if you can’t tell.

Oh mom I know that one of your goals is to read the Book of Mormon a lot and I want to tell you about one of the things I’ve been doing. I have bought myself a clean paperback Book of Mormon and I started at the beginning and have been going through and marking with different colors:All the references to Jesus’ name including the pronouns.Everything he says.All his attributes.And all the doctrine and principals. This has really helped me to pay attention to what the prophets are trying to say in the scriptures and it also helps me in my regular study because when I’m just studying the scriptures my mind naturally picks all those things out now.

Speaking of the Book of Mormon the book store here has a lot of Book of Mormons in different languages. It’s really tempting to get some. But one I don’t really need them and two I don’t remember which ones i have and which ones I don’t.

I saw Elder Brooks a couple times. I don’t see him that much though, his schedule is way different than mine. I got a picture with him but not with Elder Munden also.

The missionaries here who have left already send the stuff that they don’t need anymore, and make their luggage heavy, home so I think I’m going to do that with my jacket and stuff. I wish I had more to talk about, I should be getting my flight plans soon!

But adios until then, and god bless.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

A little down and discouraged

Thanks for your experience that you shared with me. I have been feeling the same way the last couple of days. I’ve been working on a grammar principle that I have been having a hard time on. Your story really helped me. I’ve been thinking, I don’t really know that much about your mission. I guess I’ve never really known how much worth my mission was going to be to me until i got here so I never really asked you about any stories from your mission. If you could, could you tell me some?

(Mom here - Short version of the story: I told him about when I was in the MTC and having a really hard time and feeling very alone. I was praying hard for help and wondering why I wasn't getting any. I got up off my knees and opened my scriptures to this passage D&C 6:14-16

14 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, blessed art thou for what thou hast done; for thou hast inquired of me, and behold, as often as thou hast inquired thou hast received instruction of my Spirit. If it had not been so, thou wouldst not have come to the place where thou art at this time.

15 Behold, thou knowest that thou hast inquired of me and I did enlighten thy mind; and now I tell thee these things that thou mayest know that thou hast been enlightened by the Spirit of truth;

16 Yea, I tell thee, that thou mayest know that there is none else save God that knowest thy thoughts and the intents of thy heart.
)

I would really appreciate it. I really don’t know what else to talk about. This week hasn’t been that eventful.

I dropped of my suitcase. I haven’t seen Elder Brooks yet. Elder Munden has though.

Oh, me and my companion were walking around a building one day when a man came running asking if anyone spoke Spanish. Me and my companion slowly raised our hands not knowing what we were getting into. He grabbed us and pushed us into this referral center and sat me down at this computer with headphones. I put them on and he told me that the guy on the other end spoke Spanish. I was like oh ok this will be easy but after i said hola he said something so fast... i really have no idea what he said. So i just said Como se llama? (What is your name) and it sounded like a paragraph put into the space that two words should be put into. So any way i saw that he was calling for a Lamb of god DVD and i didn't know what the word for lamb was so i asked him if he was calling for the lama de Dios...He then hung up. Later i looked up lama and lama means wool so yah whatever.

I can’t think of anything else to say. Tell everybody back home that I said hi.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

A Bonus!

I noticed over the last few weeks that Jay always emails around the same time so I sent him an email and asked if he had time to chat after he was done emailing for the week. We were able to chat through email for a little bit. What a treat! The following is the content of our emails back in forth. Jay is in black. Mom is in red.

Mom: How are you feeling? Any colds? What do you miss the most, besides me?

Jay: I’m not sick or anything. I miss rest most of all over you. {Ouch! That hurts! :-) }

Mom: Working hard, huh? Do you talk to Brandt much?

Jay: Yah trying to do as much as I can. I talk to him all the time. He is in my hall.

Mom: Want anything special?

Jay: Joseph Smiths unpublished revelations? I would only read it during personal study so it doesn’t defer from my studies.

Mom: That's cool! I'll see what I can do! Give yourself a hug for me!

Jay: Ok anything else you want to ask me? My laundry’s almost done.

Mom: Have you heard anything about your visa(passport)? Have you gained any weight?

Jay: Yah I went to the Mexican consulate to sign it the other day and two pounds.

Mom: Good! Go back to your laundry and remember I love you!

Jay: Love you too!

Another week at the MTC

This week has been surprisingly eventful!

On Thursday we heard that a bunch of missionaries from Guatemala came in the last Wednesday so we decided to go try to converse with them. After explaining that we just wanted to test our Spanish skills they stopped looking at us like what are you doing here gringo? And they found it fun to listen to us. We wanted to practice the first vision in Spanish with them. My companion told them that Christ killed for us instead of died for us! Ha ha!!

Elder Mask of the seventy came to speak with us yesterday. His talk was really interesting because he was talking about his grandpa who moved to Chihuahua with a bunch of Mormons and eventually went on a mission to Mexico City. Around the time of the revolution. He told some pretty cool stories about Carranza solders and stuff. but anyway at the end he gave us all a blessing right there in the meeting that we all would have the desire to do this work, that we will be obedient, and that we would be blessed with anything we needed at the moment. It was really cool and I’m glad he spoke to us.

Our investigator is pretty cool. He is 26 and plays soccer. He can only speak a few words of English. Me and my companion taught him last Friday. It went pretty well. We are scheduled to teach him again tomorrow.

In the referral center the other day a guy called me and wanted to know why the church was so for Prop 8, and he was blaming the church for ending his marriage. when i started to talk to him i told him that the church doesn’t try to stop marriages and that the reason that we were so behind prop 8 was because be believe that marriage is between a man and a woman and that only through that can we gain eternal joy and happiness. he said that he just wanted to have a civil conversation but as we continued talking he said that he called a lady at prop 8 services and she gave him all the literature about our beliefs and he didn't believe any of it. So naturally any thing I told him, be it from scripture or what our leaders say about it he wouldn't have listened to. And I didn't want to argue with the guy so I just said that I was sorry for what he went through and I asked him if he had any more questions. He didn't so I said good by and ended the call. The MTC took the recording of call and has made it an example of what to do in that situation.

I don’t have anything else to say. Tell everybody hi for me. I’m doing great!!

Elder Whetten

P.S. Elder Krebs says hi.