Monday, January 25, 2010

A Phew Photos

When there's no gas in the Church, use irons!
(I believe they are heating the baptismal font using heated irons.)

Just one touch does hurt. A LOT!


A Mother's Influence

Well I really haven’t heard about Haiti. Only that something bad happened. I heard a couple people talking about it but here they pronounce Haiti like eye-ee-ti so I really didn’t know what they were talking about. It was a while before I remembered that they don’t pronounce the H here.

Yesterday was stake conference in the stake of San Luis Potosi. It was pretty boring. But our mission president was called to speak in it and he just got up there and woke everybody up because of his really excited way of talking.

The other day we came home and our power was off. So we went to flip the main power switch back on and our heater that we had literally blew up! There are burn marks on the floor from where it was! So I guess I’m just going to have to use more blankets at night now.

This next Thursday we have to go back to Aguascalientes to meet the president of the area. So there’s something cool that will happen.

Last Thursday it was about eight o’clock at night when we finished with all of our appointments, we really didn’t know what to do so we just decided to go to the house of one of our investigators who we had a long time ago who isn’t really progressing. She invited us in and we started talking to her and found out that she was having a little bit of difficulty with her daughter which is about three years old. So we explained to her how reading the Book of Mormon with her daughter every night can help her. I also shared with her a scripture about the stripling warriors and how it was there mothers that had taught them to be so strong in the gospel and how sometimes we don’t really realize the power that the mothers have in shaping the soul of a child. That if they teach them good and pure things when they are young, they will grow up with those things in there heart and become good people. Right after I said in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. She started to cry and said that now she really knows that there is a God and that he loves her. She said that right before we came she was crying because she didn’t know what to do with her daughter. Right then we knocked her door and told her the things she needed to hear.

That’s about it for today. Be safe and read the scriptures.

Elder Whetten

Monday, January 18, 2010

Wild Dogs Everywhere

Ok so a lot of people are asking why my E-mails are so short so here is my attempt at a long one:

Our days usually start off going to a colony really far away called los Magueys. Then we go to lunch wherever it is in our area and then we go to another colony called los Rincones which is a lot closer to our house. We live in a huge apartment on the ground floor with two other elders who work in the same area as us. Because the ward boundaries are so big, we have two pairs of elders working here.

When we go to eat, the meal usually contains rice and beans with a kilo of tortillas in the middle of the table. And water that they usually blend with a fruit. Here in Mexico when we go grocery shopping we go to a place called Bodega which is like Wal-Mart’s version of Food City. Or just a Mexican Wal-Mart. One thing that I have really been missing from home is blueberry muffins. But I can wait on those until I get home. I

t takes us about 40 minutes walking to get to Los Magueys. Along the way we see a bunch of dogs. Really everywhere in Mexico you see dogs. They just run wild here. Mostly because they don’t neuter them here.

In our house as I have mentioned we live with two other Elders. Elder Delgado and Elder Garcia from Mexico City and Guadalajara. They both have a huge desire to learn English and are both learning very fast with me and my companion. My companion is starting to remind me of my companion in the MTC Elder Russell. Maybe it’s just because he is white,

The other day was Elder Garcias birthday. I gave him five pesos to go buy a candy bar. But he just paid it back to me when I paid the taxi to our interviews with the president. At our interviews with the president we all got new cell phones! But with more rules. Now we can only call president or our zone and district leaders with them. We can’t use them anymore for calling the bishop or the members for help anymore.

It was pouring the other day and we used the rain to get into peoples houses. Because most of the time they wont let us in.

My Ecco shoes are working out quite nice. Haven’t busted yet wearing them everyday.

We still haven’t had a preparation day since October.

My and my companion almost got attacked by the virgin worshipers club yesterday.

Yesterday the attendance of our ward went down from 130 to 60 people. I don’t know what happened there but we had brought 17 investigators to church.

I learned a new joke this week: What are the two oldest animals? The Zebra and the cow! Because their black and white! Hahaha!

But anyway, that’s about what’s happening or what its like here. Everyone who lives here really likes Obama. I don’t know why, but the fact is, I really don’t know what’s happening in the states right now. Could you include like a little something from the news every week or something the country is debating about like if the year is called Twenty ten or two thousand ten? That’s one of the debates here.

Well that’s about it. Be safe and Enjoy life!

Elder Whetten

Monday, January 11, 2010

Brrr!

Well it has been a really cold week! I am actually using my big jacket that we bought with two layers. I had it all ready to send home in a package when it started to get really cold. That would have been a very sad day!

Well we had the zone conference last Tuesday. And we had to go all the way to Aguascalientes to have it! The president wanted to combine the two zones because apparently another general authority is coming to our mission and he wanted to tell us all about it in a bigger group.

So I got my package too! I was a little disappointed at first because I couldn’t find it amongst all the other packages. It was in with the letters because it was so small. But thanks for the camel. And for the contacts.

So I wonder if you remember about that abandoned girl I told you about. Well we knocked the door of the lady who worked at the video rental place, and she is now going to be baptized soon along with her husband! Whoo hoo!

My companion also completes 11 months in the mission today!

Well that's all for today, Keep warm! And there are a couple new pictures up.

Elder Whetten




Monday, January 4, 2010

Pictures

Jay sent over 50 pictures today. These are my favorite. Enjoy!












Hump Day!

Well I don’t really have much to tell either. We really didn’t have much success in the work this last week. With the holidays and everything people are just a little too into sinning to listen to a message from God.

I didn’t get your package yet but we are going to have a zone conference tomorrow and I’ll probably get it then.

Our ward changed from 9 in the morning to 1130. The attendance went up from 60 every week to about 100. Funny how that works.

It has been really cold lately. But the weather is still very weird. There are like random warm spots in the middle of the day and then it will get freezing again in like 30 minutes.

I had a good hump day. It feels like I’ve only been here for like two months. And all the missionaries say that the second year will feel like five minutes. So here goes the second year!

I really can’t think of anything else to say right now so just be safe and have a good January.

Elder Whetten