Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
This week, well, it was a week haha. We had the least amount of
lessons this week since I've been here. It was spring break here,
which I think had some to do with that, but I also believe it is a
trial of our faith. As I've said, we've been trying to meet our daily
goals, especially the contacting one, and we've contacted at least 20
new people nearly every day. I feel like Satan's trying to make us
feel like contacting people isn't working, and that it just takes too
much time from doing other things, but we've been promised by our
Mission President, who was promised by Elder Ballard, and thus The
Lord, that as we do this we will see our success increase, and
specifically that the number of God's children that we'd be able to
help get baptized would double. I feel like this week has been a trial
of my faith and Elder Merrell's faith, but we are determined to endure
and persevere through these times of trials.
I know many of y'all are probably curious about our investigators that
had baptismal dates. Out of the four that have dates, only one, Jorge,
is still able to meet his date, and we weren't able to meet with him
this week because of Spring Break. Actually we haven't been able to
meet with any of our investigators with Baptismal dates this week. Max
and Max have missed their appointments the last two weeks, and we
don't really know if they're even really interested anymore, and Andres,
while he's super interested, is really hard to get a hold of. We still
have very high hopes for all of these investigators, but with Max,
Max, and Andres at least we need to meet with them and discuss setting
a new date as a goal with them. We still have high hopes that Jorge
will still be baptized the 13 of April, although we may not be the
ones teaching him at that point... (he speaks English primarily, and
his parents aren't interested like we'd hoped, so English missionaries
might be better for him.)
Even though this week wasn't very great as far as teaching people, or
having a lot of "visible" success, we still saw tons of miracles.
While we weren't able to meet with Fernando this week for various
reasons, we talked to him over the phone and he said he's been reading
in the Book of Mormon, and has highlighted, and written down
questions!! That's super good news for him!
We also have a miracle that we saw just last night. We were out
knocking doors to finish getting at least 20 new contacts, and we had
19 and it was about 8:30 or so. We knock a door and this man, named
Jose, opens up. After asking what church we're from he said, "you know
what, I've got some friends from that church, Paty and her family." He
then paused for a second and let us in, and like many hispanics are
very apt at doing, started to talk our ears off. There's too much that
he talked about to relay, but one thing stuck out to me. He said,
"I've been to a number of churches, Jehovah Witness, Christians,
Evangelists, and I'm a Catholic... But Paty never invited me to go to
your church." I found it really interesting that Jose, who probably
didn't really talk about religion much with Paty, still was rather
curious and wondered why in the world she hadn't ever invited him to
Sacrament Meeting. It made me think of how often we, as normal
members, and even as missionaries sometimes, don't do the one key part
to missionary work, that is invite. I know that as we lovingly invite
others to do things that will strengthen their faith in Christ, like
read the Book of Mormon, come to Church or activities, etc. (use your
imagination and the Spirit to know what to invite), whether or not
they accept we will have done our duty. Go and try it this week. Pray
about who you should invite, and what you should invite them to do,
and how you can do so in a loving way, and then follow the Revelation
you will receive, and I know and can promise that you will see the
hand of The Lord guiding you and putting miracles in your path.
Miracles waiting to be realized if we only act.
I love y'all and hope that all goes well this coming week! Take care,
and write! ;)
-Elder Whitaker
ps. Mom, if you happen to be planning on sending an Easter package, I
could do with more socks. I'm doing fine, but the washer here seems to
have an extra liking for socks... I've got enough, but I just like to
have a little extra, so a few pair of black socks (like 3?) and a pair
or two of brown would be greatly appreciated, if you are indeed going
to send a package soon (but be careful on timing, I'm pretty likely to
be transferred April 16). If you aren't planning on sending a package,
or already sent it or something, don't worry, like I said, I've got
enough for now. I also tried to think of anything else that I need,
but I couldn't think of anything, which is a good sign!
I love y'all and take care over Spring Break! Don't have too much fun
without me :)
This week, well, it was a week haha. We had the least amount of
lessons this week since I've been here. It was spring break here,
which I think had some to do with that, but I also believe it is a
trial of our faith. As I've said, we've been trying to meet our daily
goals, especially the contacting one, and we've contacted at least 20
new people nearly every day. I feel like Satan's trying to make us
feel like contacting people isn't working, and that it just takes too
much time from doing other things, but we've been promised by our
Mission President, who was promised by Elder Ballard, and thus The
Lord, that as we do this we will see our success increase, and
specifically that the number of God's children that we'd be able to
help get baptized would double. I feel like this week has been a trial
of my faith and Elder Merrell's faith, but we are determined to endure
and persevere through these times of trials.
I know many of y'all are probably curious about our investigators that
had baptismal dates. Out of the four that have dates, only one, Jorge,
is still able to meet his date, and we weren't able to meet with him
this week because of Spring Break. Actually we haven't been able to
meet with any of our investigators with Baptismal dates this week. Max
and Max have missed their appointments the last two weeks, and we
don't really know if they're even really interested anymore, and Andres,
while he's super interested, is really hard to get a hold of. We still
have very high hopes for all of these investigators, but with Max,
Max, and Andres at least we need to meet with them and discuss setting
a new date as a goal with them. We still have high hopes that Jorge
will still be baptized the 13 of April, although we may not be the
ones teaching him at that point... (he speaks English primarily, and
his parents aren't interested like we'd hoped, so English missionaries
might be better for him.)
Even though this week wasn't very great as far as teaching people, or
having a lot of "visible" success, we still saw tons of miracles.
While we weren't able to meet with Fernando this week for various
reasons, we talked to him over the phone and he said he's been reading
in the Book of Mormon, and has highlighted, and written down
questions!! That's super good news for him!
We also have a miracle that we saw just last night. We were out
knocking doors to finish getting at least 20 new contacts, and we had
19 and it was about 8:30 or so. We knock a door and this man, named
Jose, opens up. After asking what church we're from he said, "you know
what, I've got some friends from that church, Paty and her family." He
then paused for a second and let us in, and like many hispanics are
very apt at doing, started to talk our ears off. There's too much that
he talked about to relay, but one thing stuck out to me. He said,
"I've been to a number of churches, Jehovah Witness, Christians,
Evangelists, and I'm a Catholic... But Paty never invited me to go to
your church." I found it really interesting that Jose, who probably
didn't really talk about religion much with Paty, still was rather
curious and wondered why in the world she hadn't ever invited him to
Sacrament Meeting. It made me think of how often we, as normal
members, and even as missionaries sometimes, don't do the one key part
to missionary work, that is invite. I know that as we lovingly invite
others to do things that will strengthen their faith in Christ, like
read the Book of Mormon, come to Church or activities, etc. (use your
imagination and the Spirit to know what to invite), whether or not
they accept we will have done our duty. Go and try it this week. Pray
about who you should invite, and what you should invite them to do,
and how you can do so in a loving way, and then follow the Revelation
you will receive, and I know and can promise that you will see the
hand of The Lord guiding you and putting miracles in your path.
Miracles waiting to be realized if we only act.
I love y'all and hope that all goes well this coming week! Take care,
and write! ;)
-Elder Whitaker
ps. Mom, if you happen to be planning on sending an Easter package, I
could do with more socks. I'm doing fine, but the washer here seems to
have an extra liking for socks... I've got enough, but I just like to
have a little extra, so a few pair of black socks (like 3?) and a pair
or two of brown would be greatly appreciated, if you are indeed going
to send a package soon (but be careful on timing, I'm pretty likely to
be transferred April 16). If you aren't planning on sending a package,
or already sent it or something, don't worry, like I said, I've got
enough for now. I also tried to think of anything else that I need,
but I couldn't think of anything, which is a good sign!
I love y'all and take care over Spring Break! Don't have too much fun
without me :)