Monday, March 30, 2009

News from Mexico

I’m happy that you got such a great calling!! (I (Mom) just got called as a Ward Missionary) Do you have a Preach my Gospel? You’re going to need one trust me. It has taught me so much that I needed to know to do this work. Study it every day as well as your scriptures. One of the things that has helped me the most in this work is memorizing the scriptures. Just a chapter a day. But when the time is right the Holy Ghost will bring one of those scriptures up that you memorized out of nowhere and it will help you greatly. (the problem is I cant memorize in Spanish yet so they are in English.) But it all works out fine.

I can also testify of prayer. And I have never used it as much as I am now. There was one time when we weren’t getting that much success. I was pondering over what we needed to do to get more. I had the faith that we could find more people. I started to examine everything that we did. I found some little things that we could improve on that could help a little but what really helped was when I examined my prayers. You know we pray for strength to get through the day, the spirit to guide us, all the things that we need gods help for. So I thought if we pray for his help in these aspects, shouldn’t we pray for his help to find people as well? So I did so and we had opportunities coming out of the most inconspicuous places. I also made sure to thank God for those blessings which I have received from my prayers.

Oh and about the Coke. I decided that even though it is ok to drink it, I am going to do everything I can so that I won’t have to drink it. I bought an extra water bottle to use throughout the day. Are you still not drinking Coke?

Do you think you can get me Logan’s address? I told him I was going to get his address from you and write him but I keep forgetting to ask.

I think a couple of kids from here added me to their facebook. So when you have the chance go ahead and accept them for me K?

Tell Tyler Congratulations! I meet a kid here who likes his band.

Well we didn’t have electricity but from the skills that dad taught me I was able to fix that! (Just kidding) We do have electricity but the Light bulbs are all in the wrong places.

We have huge Cockroaches here! It scares me. I thought I wasn’t scared of them anymore but when I saw these it rekindled my fear.

Remember to listen to your first impressions. You testimony and the Book of Mormon are your most powerful tools. And be gently bold.

Elder Whetten

P.S. Can you tell me what the word Fantazmigoria means? (Any help with this ?) I think this is how it is spelled.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Week Three!

Well today marks my third week. 77th day I think.

This week is Semana Santa in Mexico which means Holy Week. My president was telling me all about it just to let me in on what it will be like. He told me that it’s like a celebration all week with huge parties in the streets, huge figurines of Jesus and Mary parading around with everybody bowing to them. All week. I haven’t seen any of this yet. It’s only Monday morning. But I’ll take pictures for you, it sounds exciting to be around as a Mormon missionary.

I’m still not that great at talking but I can get my point across. And I can understand a lot more now. I’ve been working on achieving my purpose as a missionary when I knock doors. As you know our purpose is to help others come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel. And this work won’t be done until the gospel has been sounded in every ear so I have been just working on not taking no for an answer. It’s hard with my limited Spanish but I know that if I trust in the Lord he won’t let me go wrong.

So Galen wants to know what I drink for water. Well our only source of water is strait from the toilet buddy! But don’t worry, we boil it and strain anything big out of it first. :) And then sometimes if we just got done climbing a mountain, and we are real thirsty, we will go to a members house and they will give us an ice cold Coke. (Really Coke is cheaper than water here. This is probably the only mission you’re allowed to drink it in.) No but we do have 20 gallons of clean water that we buy every week.

Mmmm! Hot dogs sound good right now. But really they have these things here called tacos al pastor. Oh my gosh! They are so good! They basically have a huge pig rotating vertically with a pineapple up top and they roast the pig with a huge flame thrower. Then they shave off the pig as its rotating into a big greasy tortilla and shave some pineapple on top of it. Oh my gosh they are so good!!! Oh and I also have tried tacos al tripas which is, you guessed it, tripe. Cow guts. Its actually pretty good. But what I’m really craving is some Coldstone believe it or not. And rocky road brownies.

You gashed your arm open? How come I’m always gone when something cool happens? Not that you hurting yourself is cool but come on! Oh and about letters. They all come to the mission offices which are millions of miles away so I usually wont get them until two weeks when the zone leaders go every month or when the president comes every month. And some of you that I write letters to should be receiving a letter soon...maybe...

That’s all for this week. I love you all. Trust in the lord with all your heart. Don’t shun the non-believers. Y para siempre Dios esté con vos.

Love,
Elder Whetten

Monday, March 16, 2009

Loving Mexico

I started out this week asking Jay some specific questions:

1. What are you eating?
If you are talking about in my residence well I usually start of my day with a sausage and vegetable omelet with some milk and juice. Then for supper I have my own sub that i make. I toast the bread in the pan and then put on it some ham, lettuce, avocado, tomato, mustard, mayonnaise, and sometimes egg. Plus they have this cream stuff here that is really good. I put that on my sandwich all the time.

2. Are you having any problems with the food?
I’m not having any problems. I guess I can take the spiciness.

3. Do you eat with the members every day?
Yes I eat lunch with members every day. I’ve gotten used to the spiciness. It’s not that bad. Oh and dad doesn’t know quesadillas.

4. Tell me about where you live?
Well I live on the last house of the street. The toilet can’t take toilet paper so we have to put it in a box next to it. We have a small camping stove hooked up to a 20 gallon gas tank. We have a ten gallon water heater. We wash our clothes on a cheese grater. We have no hangers and no place to hang our clothes anyway. No drawers either. And cats are fighting all night just outside my window. (Not like I’m not used to that.) Mom here – at our house on Mesa Drive this was practically a night-time occurrence.

Jay’s email:
Well yes it has been two weeks now hasn’t it? Yes we do have a lot of baptisms. As for teaching and tracting, we have a good mix of both. Some investigators are fast paced while others are slow. And our area is huge so there is also a lot of walking and bus riding. I am not able to teach as much as I want to but when we teach we do just make it simple. For Mexican people sometimes you have to spell it out for them. It’s like teaching primary.

Sorry that life is so boring. I told you you needed to get a dog.

I’m starting to talk to people a little. All the little Mexican kids like to give me peace signs because that’s what they think Americans do. Every time I hear a little kid yell "Hey Gringo!" I’ll turn around and they will all be giving me peace signs. It’s quite funny.

It is quite amazing to me, this whole experience I mean. How God can take some American boy and have him develop so much love for people who he didn’t think anything about before his mission. I am loving every day I have out here. And I am doing everything I can to learn this language so that I can start to really teach sooner. I love this gospel and I wish for everyone to know it.

Tell grandma Happy Birthday and I will send her a letter when I get a chance.

Love you all!
Elder Whetten

Monday, March 9, 2009

News from Mexico!

Sorry I wasn’t able to write you for so long. My p-day is on Monday and I got here on Monday so naturally they decided not to give me one you know?

Well let’s say I love it here. When I got here they had us sleep at the offices the first day. And then they shipped us out to our areas. They moved me to a town called Aguascalientes which isn’t in Leon but it’s in the boundaries. My new companions name is Elder Cobarruvias. He doesn’t speak any English. Yay!! But he is not a native. He comes from Bolivia and there they speak just a tiny but differently than in Mexico. But he has been here for a while so he has adjusted enough. For a while he was the only one I could understand. But now I have just started to understand a little but of what the locals are saying. (They talk really fast!)

A lot of the people we talk to live in homemade sheds built in between the alleyways of houses. Its been really interesting to me so far because I have been told that Family equals joy all my life but I have never really realized what that really meant until now. These people live in poor circumstances and most may not have a roof over their heads, but as long as they have their family, they are happy. Really really happy. And I have come to love the Mexican people for that.

Oh and that picture of me levitating. A magician never reveals his tricks. But all the little kids love it to death! One of the richer families that are members, their kid is taking Kem po and he had some Num-chucks but didn’t know how to use them. So I showed him a couple things. (Not like I really know how to use them either) But it was fun.

Elder Hatton IS in my area! He thought it was weird that our moms talked to each other. But he helps me out with the Spanish a lot.

It was interesting going to church the other day. Their building looks so much different from ours. And all the Mexicans cuss a lot. Members and non members, Bishops and teachers. That’s just what Mexicans are like here. When Priesthood meeting was over one man leaned over and said to me in English "lets make like gangsters and get the f?¡$ out of here!" But I was used to it by then.

I really like this keyboard. Check it out. I can do this:¡Santa Baha! and this ¿Que? Ha ha I love it

Oh and I can’t tell you how much people recognize my name. Its mind numbing because I can’t understand them most of the time.

Well that’s all for now. Talk to you later. And I love you!

Love,
Elder Whetten

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Monday, March 2, 2009

He Called!!!!

Jay just called me from the Dallas Airport. He has a two hour layover in Dallas and then it's on to Leon, Mexico. He should arrive in Leon at about 1:45pm AZ time.

He sounded so good! He said he loved the MTC, that it really strengthened his testimony. He loved the spiritual atmosphere.

He is travelling with nine other Elders. What an awsome sight that must be!

He spoke some Spanish to me. It sounded really good to me! He said it was the "mission purpose". I was pretty impressed. He said he was pretty humble about his Spanish, not afraid to speak it, but he knew it wasn't perfect.

We talked for about ten minutes, until his quarters ran out. :-)

Sunday, March 1, 2009

The Three Amigos

Elder Jay Whetten, Elder George Masters & Elder Brandt Munden - All from Madero Ward - In front of the Provo temple.