December 28,2009

I was able to do my first babtism yesterday. I was way happy when she chose me and kinda surprised because of my lack of spanish. It way way cool though. It was really good talking with everyone on the phone.

December 21, 2009

Thanks for the pictures, they are great, and ya i got the package thanks! all the candy was awesome and my companion was way happy too. The garments are gonna help my chaffing too from that bad desicion of buying spandex ones. Haha i laughed when i saw the hot cocoa but its going to be good anyways, i will have some on christmas. Sounds like everytone is doing good, i can´t believe Levi is going to the Athens Greece mission that is so cool. He will definitely love it, i have only heard of one other person that went there. I found out from Jeff, cause he E-mailed me, but thats way awesome.
I won´t be able to use my credit card for like 2 more months because i have to get a chilean ID. The dollar is kinda down right now so it sucks. Everything is still pretty cheap though. The daytime temps here are around mid 90´s in the day but its still not the hottest month. Its pretty dry just kinda like St. George but maybe a tad more humid. The food here is good, i ate a Charrasco the other day they sell on the streets. Its like lamb meat or something with cheese just like a hamburger. It was way good. They put mayo on everthing and the milk and eggs aren´t refrigerated. That picture i sent is where i live off the balcony. There is no dryer so we have to freakin dry everthing on a rack. Then iron it. Our shower house broke today too so i had to sew it back together with the sewing kit you gave me and it kind of works now. Its probably gonna break soon again. Well got to go, i will talk to you on Christmas day! im excited.. Christmas is pretty big here and were going to have a big dinner at this familys house that is way cool. I have played guitar a few times at members and investagators houses which is cool but only for a sec. ok -Bye
Con mucho amor Elder _Whitney

December 13, 2009

Hola, Things are going pretty good, How is everything back there? Chile is really hot, especially when your sector is just skinny hill. I haven´t gotten your package yet but it should be there tomorrow hopefully. Tuesday is when we get our mail. I have only recieved 1 letter from someone so far, from this girl i was friends with at DIxie State for a while before my mission. Hopefully you put jesus stickers or something on it or else it might get stolen. The best thing to put is a big cross and a big virgin Mary picture on it. Then it will probably never get stolen. Thats way cool that levi got his call, i wish i knew where cause if he tells me, i will have to wait for at least a month more probably. or maybe 2 years. That is awesome that it snowed there, it was probably nothing like the time it snowed last year before christmas though, that was amazing. Im starting to understand a little more every week but i still suck at speaking. My mouth literally doesn´t allow me to be able to roll my r´s or speack fast and clear. Its way hard to prunounce all the vowels in the words. I practice by reading every day from the bible out loud. I have almost finished reading the book of Mathew completely out loud and in spanish.

We had a zone conference this week and president amado from the seventies spoke to us. He was way good even though i could only understand a little. We had a special change last night and the kid in our pension that is 6´7 got moved to another sector while a kid from peru got moved in. Which is probably good cause i will have to speak more spanish.

Santiago pretty much is just a big pollutioned city. Its really beautiful sometimes though. There are so may builings its ridiculous. Hopefully we have a babtism the 27 for this girl we are teaching, maybe this pregnant lady too for next month.

Has jeff got his call yet? is he still waiting? Thats cool about BYU, too bad its not USC. Have fun at the Christmas party, to bad it will be a little empty without grandpa and grandma and me. I haven´t taken anything out of my account cause i haven´t really needed anything yet and plus i can´t use it yet cause i don´t have my chilean ID yet too. I want the dollar to go up, its kinda low right now. around 500 pesos to the dollar.

I have no idea how the calling on Christmas is going to work yet but i will let you know next monday which i guess is Christmas Eve. I can´t believe the stupid saints are undefeated. Well everyone here is obsessed with soccer and dogs and weed and beer.

Have a merry CHristmas. I will try and send more pics when i take more cool pics. Love you! Mom and dad, Love you too Brigham and caleb and Maddy!
-Elder Whitney

November 30, 2009

I want Alma 29:9 on my plaque... Sorry i forgot to put that in my last E-mail.. The weather is hot and sunny and were going into summer right now. We have had splits a couple of days this week. I get along good with my companion Elder Sorensen from Bountiful and Elder Luebke from Arizona is way awesome, We have a lot in common, he leaves in 5 months. They always speak english to me so its way hard to learn the language. Its so hard to understand chileans, I can almost understan everything my companion says but when they talk its just this mumble, and they don´t finish the words or say s´s so it is even harder. My and my companion already got a special change. Sorensen and Leubke had to pray about who they wanted to send over to this other sector and they felt like it should be me and Sorensen. So we got changed to Consistorial which is a smaller sector more south. We have to take a Bus ride every morning and every night from here on out. We went to the Consistorial ward as our first day there yesterday and the members are way nice. It sucked though cause i was way sick yesterday and had to suffer all day with an achy flu. I could hardly talk cause my voice was lost as well so im sure all the new members and the bishop and the ward missionary leader got a good impression of me the first day. I threw up after sacrement meeting but i feel better today. There are little candy shops and tons of little stores and dogs everwhere and they are pretty scary sometimes. the lunches we have are always pretty good with the members. Wednesday night the stake president invited all the missionaries in the zone to come over to his house for a dia de gracias dinner. It was way good and the turkey, im sorry to say, was the best i have had for thanksgiving. It was way good and fun to hang out with everyone in our zone. Sounds like your thanksgiving went pretty well. For Christmas i need peanut butter, a couple more 100 % cottom garment bottoms (large) and.. thats probably it.. There is some way sick stuff here in Chile i will probably buy before i leave and im pretty sure i have enough money for it. You could send me other goods too. that would be great. O ya some more acne face wash stuff... Kids throw rocks and fruit at us sometimes in the street but its good cause they suck at throwing, and they are horrible at basketball. Tell maddie congrats for the temple, She will love the MTC and the mission. In our new sector we work with two sisters and they are way cool. One of them is new like me and was in my zone at the MTC. I learned how to juggle.

Con mucho amor -Elder Whitney
ojalla ustedes tuvieron un gran dia de gracias. Mí mission es marvillosa y estoy muy animado para servir y enseñar las personas sobre Jesucristo y el evangelio. Aun que es muy deficil a entender, yo sé yo podriá entender en tres o quatro meses. Enviaré picturas cuando yo aprenda trabajar estes computadores con mí camera.

Here's the translation:
Hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving. My mission's awesome and I'm excited to serve and teach the people about Jesus Christ and the gospel. Even though it's hard to understand people, I know I'll be able to understand them in 3 or 4 months. I'll send some pictures when I figure out how to work the computers with my camera.

Week one in Chile

The mission president and his wife with Elder Whitney his first day in Chile.



Chile is Way cool and way pretty, reminds me of L.A mixed with some Hawaii. I live in an apartment with two other elders in my sector. I really like the other two elders in my sector, the other one is really weird. But my sector is one of the biggest here in my mission. I didnt think i would have to walk this much. probably 8 miles a day somedays. We take micros around too which is crazy cause nobody obeys the speed limit here and i swear im gonna die every ride. There are tons of rich people in my sector and some really poor ares too. I can´t understand the Chileans cause they don´t pronounce their s´s and speak way fast. The rich people are way hard to teach. We tracked up and down this hill for hours without getting in once until finally we found the perfect coolest family. It was just the mom and her two daughters but hopefully they can progress and be babtized. I got to go to the mall here today cause my comp needed new shoes and it was the biggest nicest mall i have ever been in. The subway thing they have here is amazing to. Its so big and nice. I carry around a little card that i use to ride all the buses and those things. There are lots of gangsters and grafittti in my secto too. My comp got punched in the face once, but o well... Its way hot here, and no fleas or anything. I will try and send some pics through Email next week but im not sure if i can do that. The food is so much better than the united states. All Natural and the icecream and pop is way bettter too, its amazing. Milk comes in boxes that aren´t refrigerated and it tastes weird. Jelly comes in a bag and its weird. I can use stuff with my american credit card so don´t worry. The pesos are hard still. The members are all way nice too. We eat lunch at a members house everyday. They feed you twice as much as in the United states but no dinner here only a giant lunch. well got 2 go, I will send more details next week. Hasta luego

COn mucho amor Elder Whitney



Does anyone know what a micro is?

MTC Still

November 4, 2009

Whitneys

Thanks for all the stuff, its all way cool and I’m glad Grandpas funeral was way good. It sounded way awesome, and I was way surprised that it was on the front page of the newspaper. He definitely was a very loved man. The firefighters tribute sounded really cool too.
Thanks for the candy as well, even though I don’t know what I’m going to do with it all. I have never ate this unhealthy in my entire life. I think I’m close to around 190 pounds. Almost to 195. I just eat as much as I can every meal.

The first day in the MTC all of the new missionaries on Wednesday go and watch teachers teach a fake investigator for about 15 minutes. Well they chose our district out of all the districts in the MTC to teach these 5 investigators since there are 10 in my district. So me and my companion have to teach 2 times in front of like a hundred kids. And were going to be the first missionaries to ever do it, instead of teachers. I’m way nervous, we teach tonight in like 3 hours. I didn’t do very good in this practice we had and so it’s pretty scary. I taught a pretty good lesson in Spanish though the other day. I had to sit and explain to them in Spanish about a part in the Book of Revelations, where it talks about how no other word shall be added unto this book. It was pretty hard.

That’s way cool about Maddies mission call. Tell her congrats. I wrote a letter to her but for some reason it got sent back. We should be getting our flight plans this weekend hopefully, so I will let you know where I am flying into and what time.
Mike e-mailed me and said he has fleas. He says his hands and feet look terrible from bites, and he is allergic to the mosquitoes there. I can’t wait to get down to Chile, my teacher posted up a bunch of pictures from my mission and they are awesome. I don’t really feel ready to go though with my Spanish.

I got to do sealings at the temple as a proxy for a kid. It was way cool. Well got to go.

Love ya
Elder Whitney

Tribute to Grandpa Whitney

I love all you guys, and I hope everything is doing ok. It was very hard to find out that Grandpa had passed away but I know the lord has a plan for him in the celestial kingdom. We can all feel comfort through the plan of salvation, and know that it was a huge blessing for him because of the great life he lived as a servant of the lord and as a great man who liked to serve and help other people. I know this personally because I have my dad as living proof of the man that loved to help. Even in is career as a firechief he reflected his christlike characteristics in the desire to lead and love those around him. He can now feel the love and comfort of those loved ones on the other side of the veil. I loved my Grandpa and am thankful for all those long drives down south to show his support for me and my family. I am also glad I got to say one last goodbye after my mission farewell, and Iknow he knows that I love him. I hope the funeral is a celebration of the life that he lived and a comfort that we will be able to see him soon.

October 26, 2009 MTC

October 26, 2009

Whitney family,

I have had some really cool experiences already. We get to go to the referral center at least once a week. People will order videos and bibles and Book of Mormons from the church and we will accept the calls, make outbound calls or chat online with other people. My first real outbound call, when someone answered was this black guy from California. He had ordered a bible and so you call and confirm and stuff. I asked if he had ever heard of the BOM and I bore my testimony about how it was also the word of God and it could bring him closer to Christ. I asked if some representatives could come give him one and he said that would be way cool.
We get some pretty crazy chats too. I was also able to help this gay guy who really wanted to change. A lot of chats are just people who are wanting to argue though. The most common question is “so you mormons believe were gonna become Gods?” then they just start listing off scriptures they want you to read about how they think it isn’t true. Its way fun though doing all that, pretty scary. We teach 2 lessons in Spanish tonight. It’s our first time having to teach in Spanish. I’m way nervous cause I kind of feel behind in it. All of our lessons went way good in English though. The teachers pretend they are investigator then we go in and teach according to what their needs are. I made this teacher cry, the spirit was way strong, and the last English lesson we did was way good too. All she said was “wow” I don’t even have anything for you guys to work on, so maybe just ask the Lord what you could do better. That was with one of my roomies though cause my companion was sick for 5 days last week.

The trip to the Grand Canyon sounds fun, and I’m way sorry I missed Brighams birthday. I honestly don’t even keep track of the date in here. I was surprised to hear it was already the 20th of October. I heard the Vikings kicked the Packers, doesn’t matter though cause Favre will just go aback to throwing interceptions soon. This girl that works here lets me know about all the games cause she is a packers fan to. I heard college game day was also going to be in Provo this weekend for the first time ever. BYU at least better beat TCU and Utah.

My e-mail is zwhitney@myldsmail.net . Ya I’m pretty sure I can call you from the airport, I should get my flight plans here in two weeks or so. Aunt Michelle and aunt Barbara both wrote me so I need to write them back, will start on thank you cards too. Well got to go, but here are the shoes, you will see the bottom piece ripped off and it rubs my foot so I get blisters.

Love Elder Whitney

October 9, 2009

October 9, 2009

Dear Whitney Family,
Thanks for the letters and the package. The cookies are really good and the candy is always amazing. The coat is really good too. I wore it to the temple today. It gets pretty cold up here in the morning and we have to walk clear up to the temple at seven in the morning.
Conference was really good, and Jeffery R. Holllands talk about the book of Mormon was the best conference talk I have ever heard. I e-mailed Sinjin back today, he says Russia is really cool and he has already taught 3 lessons. Mike leaves Monday so its pretty crazy. I saw Mike Peterson today. He just barely got in so it was way nice to see him.
Can you please send me my other Nike shoes? These ones I have, some of the bottom part already ripped off and I have a huge blister on the bottom of my foot, and can’t play basketball. Sorry you have to spend all this money and stuff sending packages but I really need other gym shoes. A sweater for P-days would also be nice, and more thick socks for gym so my feet don’t blister. How was Park City? Also you could send up the pants and shirt too, I guess I could use them.
This Elder from Samoa just left our district and went to the Guatemala MTC. He was way tight and we got along good. We all learned the Haku and did it before he left. My whole district is all pretty athletic and gym is way intense.
I got letters finally from Jeff, Chase, Landon and Ryan so that was nice. Brent also wrote me this week too. Me and all of the elders have so much candy and food in our room its ridiculous. We have a way cool collage on our wall of the Chilean flag and pictures, it’s tight. Well G2G… Love you guys. I will send more pics.
Elder Whitney

October 2, 2009 MTC letter

Received on Friday October 2, 2009

Dear Whitneys,
It’s good to hear from all of you. I have been doing pretty good. It’s getting a lot harder and I feel behind on Spanish and on the doctrine. Me and my companion have taught the first lesson three times now at the teaching evaluation center. I don’t think we have been doing very well though. We are supposed to get to know the investigators and what there needs are and then teach them according to there needs. Its so hard to tie all the topics like prophets and Jesus Christo earthly ministry to families or people with no Christian background. My companion gets down on himself and thinks if the teacher says anything about how we should have done something different or that we need to work on something he gets all frustrated and says he hates it here. I told him to stop whining and stop feeling sorry for himself because I know we can teach better lessons, we just keep forgetting to personalize it (the lesson more). My companion got mad but we’re good now. I’m just a little worried about our teaching. But anyways our district is all still way close. And we are all good friends now.

Nieves (my companions last name) means snow in Spanish. I guess his dad is from Panama. We have to watch conference here at the MTC. There is now way they would ever let 2,000 of us go. It would be insane and way irreverent probably. that’s way cool that you got tickets though. Thanks for sending the money and some more pictures of my friends. I will send more pics next time but here is one of me and my companion.

You can hear the BYU game pretty good when your outside. But I haven’t actually heard anything yet cause we have to study in our classroom. I’m just taking the word of other elders. My district leader is from Mesa, Arizona. He is pretty cool. We just moved in with him and Elder Yeakly form Boise last night. Our district leader got in trouble for moving us in though cause he didn’t clear it with the branch president first. We ;moved in cause we both were the only two in both rooms and we got new missionaries in our branch today and we didn’t want to risk getting nerdy roomies.

It’s getting kinda cold. Today it rained. And I kinda wished I had a jacket. Everyone else in my district has one right now. Gym is way fun. I play basketball pretty much every time. We sometimes will have district soccer or sand volleyball but we are athletic and stuff. So its tight.
Elder Fuimono is from Samoa and he played rugby. We got along way good. But he is going to Guatemala and leaves here for the Guatemala MTC in five or six days. Which sucks! He is 21 and is way cool. Oh yea by the way there are 17 MTCs around the world just in case you didn’t know.
In gym I usually have to guard this DL recruit black albino kid that’s 6’6 and amazing. He can dunk it pretty much whenever. I’m getting pretty good and can dunk it and stuff. My feet hurt though because of my turf toe.

We don’t sing “Ye elders of Israel” but have devotionals every Tuesday and Sunday night. They are way good. The president of Dixie State spoke last night. It was way good.

Thanks so much for the package and the card. It’s all way good food. And candy is always useful. My companion says thanks too!

Got to go write you later.
Love Elder Whitney

MTC drop off

1st MTC letter

1st Letter from the MTC

September 18, 2009

Dearest familia,
It honestly feels like I have been ere for at least a month. The days are so long and they always are wanting you to be busy. The Spanish is slowly coming back but I feel like it’s going to take forever to start to be somewhat fluent. Sometimes I feel way over burdened but the spirit calms me.
Me and my companion get along great and we are like way good friends already. He is from West Jordan. My district is all way cool too. We are way close already and are all friends. Me, Mike, and Sinj ate lunch one day but I don’t really see them a lot. They don’t give us very much time to write letters or anything. But got 2 go…
The food is good but gives you way bad gas. Everyone here farts.
Love you all
Elder Whitney

September 23, 2009

September 23, 2009
　
Thanks so much for writing me back as soon as you got my letter cause really getting letters is like the most exciting part of the day and you get to rub it in the other elders faces. Ya sorry I forgot to tell you my companions name, his name is Cameron Scott Nieves (Elder Nievas). He played lacrosse in SLC and I guess was pretty good. We both like a lot of the same music and were always singing songs but inserting church words in them so they are appropriate. Thanks so much for the pictures I will send some with this letter I printed out at the bookstore. Today is my first P day and it is awesome. We go to the temple every Wednesday morning and so this morning we ate at our cafeteria then went to the temple, and the temple cafeteria is amazing and cheap, so we ate there again right after. I had a huge waffle with blueberries and whipped cream. One of my teachers Hermosa Nava is amazing. We only have 2 teachers and one classroom for all 8 weeks. It fits 12 guys all form our district in a room about as small as Brigham’s room. Were in the classroom everyday for about six hours, so it gets a little old. The Spanish is tough but so far we have just caught up to what I’ve learned in all 3 years of high school.
The spirit here is so strong that I literally go to bed at night with a burning bosom. The gospel is so simple and it makes sense so much here. I feel like I have been here for at least a month its crazy. The days feel like weeks, but the weeks feel like days. Our district is all like athletic and we all feel like we could be brothers. Its been good but extremely tough too. The first week has been the longest of my life. We are already required to pray in Spanish, and to bear our testimonies in Spanish too. We always have so much to do its overwhelming and can get pretty stressful sometimes. We have to teach our first lesson Friday to a teacher and we have to do three contacts in Spanish too.

Here’s Spanish
( I was trying to read Zacks writing - so I probably haven’t typed it right)
Yo se que Dios es nuesiro padre y yo se que cristo vive, y Joseph Smith fue in prueta yo se que la lilies es verdadero, el evanangelio es ur bendacerio. En mivide.


Excellente Calidad

Ya, me and Mike eat lunch all the time, I don’t see Sinj that much but just saw him half hour ago.