Monday, August 31, 2009

Hurricanes and Baptisms

Well two of my worst nightmares that I had before my mission have happened. (Baptizing a really old and disabled person and a pregnant lady.) We baptized these two really old brothers and a lady who has about two weeks left before giving birth. It wasn’t that bad but it scared me a little.

We finished this month with 416 baptisms. We went bowling to celebrate.

We have been getting a lot of rain from the hurricane. Its only been sprinkling all day every day but it adds up. One day it rained really hard and we got really wet, but we had a good attitude about it.

You are right about how people have to bring forth fruit to be baptized. One way that we can see that is if they go to church. That is a big one for me and my companion. So much so, that if they don’t go we don’t visit them again.

We should be getting the new version of the bible in Spanish pretty soon. Yay!!

I’m going to see if I can’t find a mail box around here like the one I was using in Aguascalientes. I think all my letters perished in this one. We received new mattresses from the mission!! (Thanks Mom!) (I guess sending several email to the mission office helped!)

That’s all for today. It wasn’t a very eventful week.

Oh yah I received my package. This time I got it in nine days. There were a couple things in there that were a good surprise. Thank you!!! Enjoy life.

Elder Whetten

Monday, August 24, 2009

Thunderhole and Thunderstorms

Well another week has passed and some cool things happened. My companion received a package from his family that had a bunch of candy from Puebla in it. I tried them all and some were weird but some I really liked. And his family sent me in the package what’s called a morral. It’s a bag that is woven on the streets of Puebla by the hippies that live there. It’s pretty cool, I’m going to try to send a picture of it.

Wow that’s really crazy about Thunderhole!!! I remember when we went there to see it and it was like at a wimpy time of the year. You were telling my all about it and then we got there and I was like ¨this is it?¨ But really that’s pretty cool. (I don't think he means 'cool' in a good way. Thunderhole is a tourist site in Maine that Jay and I went to see two years ago. Yesterday some people were swept into the ocean there by a rogue wave and a 7 year-old girl was killed. Check out the story here http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/117444.html )

Speaking of thunder, about two nights ago it started raining hard and thundering. It was thunder like I’ve never heard before. And it was striking all around in the neighborhood! One struck the ground three times in front of our house. You could actually hear the actual bolts! It was crazy! I was actually a little scared.

We got rid of the bed bugs but we are still sleeping on the floor because we are still a little scared of the mattresses. And we are used to it.

Well that’s about it and we don’t have much time. I’ll write again next week. Enjoy life!
Elder Whetten

Today Mexico vs. United States (we lost)

My Morral

The Mexican Sunset


The effects of the storm

Monday, August 17, 2009

No transfer!

Well I just got back from listening to Elder Christofferson. Well I can’t really say ¨listen¨ because I fell asleep. The president had this elder who was leaving in three days spend the time with us until he left. And he snored like crazy! They were like reverberating of the walls! So yah I only got like three hours of sleep last night. But he is gone now.

Oh and changes happened again today, and I’m not getting changed again. My companion is a little bittersweet about it because he has seven and a half months in this area and he was hoping to go to a new one. But he doesn’t want to leave me as a companion either. He only has two changes left before he goes home so it would be cool if I get to kill him.

We haven’t been able to kill them (bedbugs) yet :( but we are trying new techniques. When we brought the mattresses to our new house we brought them strait to our back yard and we are keeping them there until we completely exterminate them.

I have four canker sores!!!! Yep I am really suffering. Especially when it comes to chili. But I talked with my mission president’s wife and she gave me many remedies that I haven’t heard before so I’m going to be trying them tonight.

Oh and those letters from my primary you said I was getting. They were actually letters from the girls at girl’s camp. I thought it was kind of funny though. I told my companion that they were letters from my primary class but when I opened it I was pulling out pictures of a bunch of girls with letters from them (they were actually their testimonies) But yah it was kind of funny.

The first vision is an important part of our teachings of our church. We teach it first because that is what gives our church the authority to claim the things that we do. It shows that this church doesn’t have to rely on teachings of ancient prophets or scriptures which can be changed by men, but that Jesus the Christ actually restored his church with all the keys and authority that will bring people to their salvation.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Short and Sweet

Hey!! No I’m not getting transferred, at least, not that I know yet. But we are moving. Our land lady wasn’t doing what she said she was supposed to be doing so we decided to move. Though we aren’t getting new mattresses. The bed bugs came back so we are going to go talk with the president.

I just got back from splits with the zone leaders, that’s why my e-mail is so late. This week wasn’t very eventful. Me and my companion have been having a lot of fun working. Did I ever mention that Elder Christoferson was coming to visit us? I knew for about a month but they told all the missionaries last Friday. He is coming next Monday. but this time we aren’t gathering all the missionaries in the mission. It’s just going to be with our zone.

We are the number one mission in Mexico in the numbers so a lot of important people want to talk to us I guess.

It is really different living so close to the offices. you can just go over their and pick up materials you need without stressing about not having anything to give investigators. Last Sunday we found the president visiting our ward. But it was ok, we had something to show for it.

I really wish I could say more but I really can’t. Sorry everybody. :) Just be sure to trust in the Lord. He knows what you’re going through. And enjoy life!!!

Elder Whetten

Monday, August 3, 2009

Oh, BTW we had some Baptisms

Well we got rid of the bed bugs but we don’t feel comfortable about sleeping on our mattresses so we are still sleeping on our clothes. We’ve gotten pretty used to it. We are going to talk to our president about getting new mattresses because we really don’t know what they might have left in there. Plus my companion’s mission card doesn’t work anymore so we are only using my half of the money until he gets his new one.

Thanks for the package! I went to the offices on Thursday and it was there. And I loved everything that was in it. You know me very well. And I love the cashew sweet and salty bars but I really love the peanut butter ones two. Also the craisins, man I miss those. And thanks grandma for the molasses cookies. They really reminded me of you. Some members gave us a package of Oreos so we had them with the peanut butter you gave me too. Oh and you don’t have to give me pencils at the moment, a missionary who left gave me like 200 of them. But thanks for the thought. (I know he doesn't NEED pencils, I just put them in every package so I can write on the customs slip "Missionary supplies - pencils, etc.")

It was my companions birthday on the 31st. A rich member gave us money to go to a Chinese buffet and I ended up doing impressions and telling my companion about John Pinette the whole time. You know ¨Fer-weewee!!¨ ha ha

We had a crazy experience this last week when we found ourselves in one of those ¨Devil be gone!¨ churches. Where people fall over and convulse and stuff. Ill tell the whole story when I get home.

Time goes by so fast here. Its like one day it’s Sunday, and then the next day is Sunday again. Well I just reviewed all about what happened this week with my companion and it seems like I talked about everything. Except we had some really good baptisms. Love you all and enjoy life.

Elder Whetten