Monday, August 30, 2010

Lessons on Prayer

Well the power went off in the whole neighborhood last night at about 12:00 which turned our fans off and made it really hot. We woke up and had to open the window but then a bunch of mosquitoes came in and started biting us. So I went and sprayed a bunch of repellent all over me and went back to bed. The mosquitoes stopped biting but it didn't stop them from buzzing around my ears all night. So long story short, I didn't get much sleep last night.


Elder Tenorio and his wife came to speak to us last Thursday. He told us a bunch of inspirational stories about how he learned English and also a form of prayer that he learned. He showed us Genesis 24:12-20 and the form of prayer that Abraham used to find his wife. Elder Tenorio told us that one day a young lady came to him and told him: Elder Tenorio I have a dilemma. I have two men in my life. I'm almost engaged to one of them but the other wants to go out with me. What should I do? Elder Tenorio told her just as an example, not that she should do it exactly as he says but to go home and before she goes to bed to pray to God and tell him the exact thing that she said to Elder Tenorio and then to tell God let it be that the man who calls me at 1:30 in the morning and says that he was reading his patriarchal blessing and that it says that he is going to marry a faithful and humble woman. That is the man that she is supposed to marry. So she went home and did exactly that and later went to sleep. and Exactly 1:30 in the morning one of the men called and told her that he was reading his blessing and that it says that he is going to marry a faithful and humble woman. At that moment the woman said Dang! I was hoping that it was the other.

He also told us that it doesn't have to be applied to finding your spouse but started to tell us of another story about how he never missed a payment on anything in his life. One day he realized that it was the last day that he was going to be able to pay the payment. The bank that he needed to drive to closed at five it was a half an hour drive with the traffic and it was 4:40 at the time. So Elder Tenorio got in his car and prayed. He said well God you know that I have never missed a payment. It doesn't look like I will be able to make it on time. Let it be that as I am driving there won’t be much traffic and that as I pull into the parking lot a car will be backing out of its space so that I might drive right in and walk into the bank and have the doors of the bank close right behind me. So Elder Tenorio started to drive with faith. There was hardly any traffic, as he pulled into the parking lot it was all full but one car was pulling out of its space so that he could pull right in and as he walked through the door of the bank they locked the doors right behind him. He also taught us many other wonderful things about prayer.

As you might remember we lost a lot of investigators last week. My companion and I told each other that we weren’t going to become discouraged by that and that God would provide us with more and better people. And well yesterday we brought nine very good people to church and met five more today that we are going to be working with. And all of them have had at least one time in church before. We are very excited.

Oh and I had to give a talk yesterday in church. I talked about 4 Nephi and how we could create a family of Zion within our own homes. And it was kinda funny because afterwards the bishopric pulled me into the bishop’s office and said that they had a question for me and that they hoped that I wouldn't get offended. I laughed and asked what it was and they said that while I was giving my talk they were looking at my shoes, they wanted to know if I needed any financial help to buy new shoes. I laughed again and said no, that my shoes were just keeping me humble here in the mission and that I am going to buy some once they totally die. But what do you think? Should I buy new ones?

Well that's all for this week. The church is true. Love you all!

Elder Whetten

Monday, August 23, 2010

The Power of the Book of Mormon

You know you're in Mexico....

Ha ha! I totally forgot about that conversation that we had. But I really needed to hear that. (I sent his this email/text conversation we had just a few weeks before he left on his mission: Jay: We need more bread. Mom: Did you check the bread tree in the back yard?  Jay: No we never planted that one remember? Mom: Go check inside your shoe. Jay: All I found was a guitar pick. Mom: Well, if there isn't any in the dryer than I guess you'll have to go get some. Jay: Can I speak with my mom now? )

Well today is my companion’s birthday. He turned 21. But we aren’t doing anything for his birthday for lack of money.

This week was actually pretty hard for us. We had every one of our investigators turned us down telling us that they didn't want to hear us anymore. We were very heart broken because some of them were really progressing and had no reason to stop listening. And we wanted to say something to help them out but the spirit told us not to and to just leave them alone for a while. So now we are going to start this week new and clean and we are going to find more people who will hear us.

I really hope that my teeth are ok when I get back. (I told him I sheduled a dental appt for him for the first week in January)  I flossed and brushed every day on my mission so if there is something wrong with them then I really got a problem.

Talking about the piano in our house, ever since I've been on my mission I’ve regretted not learning how to play piano. One of my companions taught me how to read music so if you get the piano tuned I will be practicing on it when I get home.

Now for my story that you want: one day when I was in Leon me and my companion after fasting, felt impressed to knock a certain street in our area. That day we went and knocked it and found three people who wanted to listen to our message. As we returned every day to continue teaching them, they each fell one by one. We were a little bit confused. We couldn't understand why the spirit told us to knock that street if everyone that we found wasn't going to progress. So we went on with the normal missionary routine for about two weeks when one day we were knocking a street that intersected with the one where we felt impressed to knock. I remember that I was knocking and I came to a house that took up space on the first street but didn't face toward it. It faced toward the street that I was knocking at the time. I knocked it wondering if we were really supposed to knock this one or if I was just hoping that we were because it was raining at the time. A woman came out and invited us to come in, me not really having the chance to announce what I was there for. When we were inside we learned that the woman and her three daughters were Christian missionaries. Feeling like they were probably going to rebuke me for asking, I asked if they would like to hear our message…and they accepted. Two weeks later that woman and her oldest daughter were dressed in white waiting to be baptized. One of the members asked why they wanted to be baptized and it gave me great joy to hear them answer that they wouldn't be here if they didn't know that this was Christ’s church restored upon the earth and that through this act they could live as a family forever.

After sharing this story I would like to invite everyone to read the Book of Mormon. If you've read it before, read it again. I just got done reading the book of Mormon for the seventh time on my mission. Every time I read it I learned something new. And I'm sure that if I were to read it fifty more times that I would learn fifty more things. But really take that time to read it and understand it. I think that we horribly underestimate the power of this book sometimes. It can change our life's and the lives of others but not if we don't give it the time to.
That's all for this week. Love you all!

Elder Whetten

Monday, August 16, 2010

Surprise Visit

Well it doesn't look like I will be able to send any videos home. It seems like all the Internets here in Celaya are pretty slow, it's too bad. I found the videos pretty interesting.


Here in Celaya we have a huge area and we have to walk a lot everyday. Also a tsunami like rain comes every day for a half an hour from nowhere. but I like the rain.

We have about two familys that we are going to baptize. One is kinda a poor family and the other has a husband who is loving the Book of Mormon and understanding it like an apostle would.

Also one of the seventy are coming to speak with us again. This time its Elder Tenorio who will come speak to us on the 26th. We actually have to take a bus to a city next to Celaya called Irapuato. Its about a half an hour drive.

Wednesday the zone leaders called us and asked if they could come to our house in the middle of the day to get some copies of the Book of Mormon. So we were waiting in the house when they came. Right after they came in three girls came in after them. Which kinda took me by surprise but then the president followed them in. It was then that I realized that the girls were the president's daughters. His family was going to the homes of all the missionaries in Celaya by surprise to check their houses. Well ours was clean and we don't have anything illegal so the president was happy and his wife gave us each a candy bar for having our house in order.

That's all for this week. Love you all!

Elder Whetten

Monday, August 9, 2010

Back to Celaya!

Well I am going to start trying something different. Everyone has been complaining about how my letters have been getting shorter and shorter so I'm am going to start Vloging too. I'm going to try to send at least one video every week and hope that that kicks up my blog a notch. there will be two in photobucket today so look for those.  (He sent an email later saying the internet connection was too slow and he couldn't send the videos.)

I got special changes!!! Changes aren't for another three weeks but yesterday at 8:30 they called us and told us that we were getting changed. I am now going to Celaya again and my companion is going to San Pancho which is a small city just outside of Leon. A lot of the missionaries who are going home this month are leaving early so we had to fill in the spots. Now the city of Celaya has gone through many changes mission wise. The president has closed down many of the areas in the city and there are only like three left. So our area is like half the city, the north part. But due to all the members going inactive here I don't think that I am going to stay for that long here. Another thing that I heard is that two of my converts here in Celaya have already been excommunicated from the church. I am really sad about that and I hope I may be able to do some good here.

My new companions name is Elder Jerano from Manzanillo, Colima. Its on the coast somewhere near Guadalajara I think. He has seventeen month's in the mission and a hard worker. We live in a really nice house. I think like the nicest I have ever lived in in the mission. And since they just closed down alot of areas, we each sleep on two mattresses!

Well that's all for today. Have a good week!

Elder Whetten

Monday, August 2, 2010

Good Family

Well this week we got a really great family looking into the gosple now. It is a mom Araceli and her two children Alberto and Gabriela. They all know nothing about religion or the bible so the lessons are always a bit long but they are such a good family and they understand the importance of finding out if these things are true. I am really excited to see how they progress.


Just today we were in about the center of the city waiting for other missionaries in front of a bank, and a policeman came up and asked us what we were doing. We told him that we were only waiting for some friends, and then he asked if he could see our ID´s. I then thought about how my ID says Arizona in big huge letters at the top as I handed it to him. But he didnt say anything about where I was from just wrote a couple things down and started to ask us about who we were. I guess if there is someone sitting infront of a bank the policemen have the pocedure of going over to see if those people are trustworthy people. And I guess we passed the test. He only asked me how much time I had in mexico and left.

one day we were walking toward an intersecion and we saw a cars tire just pop right off as it was turning through. We ran and helped the people push their now really hard to push car out of harms way. But it was just a really interesting thing to see.

But thats about it for this week. Love you all!

Elder Whetten.

Pictures

We found this painting of another missionarie in the zoneleaders house. apparently the missionaries girlfriend broke up with him two weeks before he came home so he just left the picture there. And he looks like me a little so I took it and hung it up in our house.
It says "If you move a rock, put it back!"
Why you don't wear your coat in the rain!

Alice in Wonderland Graffiti


My companion's broken shoe