March 21, 2011

Hello Family,

This week was really good, we have another baptismal date on the 17th, we are teaching the friend of the venegas family, and she has been going to seminary almost every day. We are finding a ton of cool people. Our goal as a mission this march is to find 21 news for every companionship and we have found 19 until now. I emailed the transfer department of BYU last week and they gave me a response, I will forward it to you. I’m like 65 percent sure though I want to just stay at Dixie to finish my associates. That lady is copying the bible letter by letter, because she made like a promise with god or something. Ha-ha I don’t think I'm going to be trunky, sometimes I think about home and stuff obviously but I never get like feeling like I want to be home or anything, because I know the mission is just 6 more months, and I can think about home the rest of my life. My release date is the 20th of September. I would like to go to viña del mar too, with Brent, it would be way tight. How long are you going to come for?

This week when we taught Roberto, the dad of the family venegas, we read Alma 22 with him. We then invited him to ask god if the book of Mormon is true in that moment. We all kneeled down and he offered one of the most sincere prayers that I have ever heard. He said that he would be the number 1 most faithful member if he let him knew that the book of mormos is true. After the prayer, almost everyone was crying and he was kind of crying too. He said he couldn’t deny the spirit that he was feeling, and he still plans on being baptized the 10 of April. It was way awesome, true faith really does work miracles. I’m reading the book of Mormon in Spanish marking all the references of jesuscrist and his words and his doctrine and principles and his attributes. For the first time in my life I actually understand like the whole story in the book of Mormon and stuff. It’s sweet. That books story is so confusing. I’m so grateful though for the book of mormos. I’m way excited for general conference, its going to be awesome!

That’s awesome that BYU is in the sweet 16 now. They better make it to the final 4. Today we played soccer and ate choripan and we were talking about sports the whole time ha-ha.

Well family, here’s some cute little photitos..

I love you Chao!!

Have a good week.

March 14, 2011

Hello family,

I’m glad you guys had a good week, I got the package that maddie sent me, thanks maddie! The shirts way cool, I love it. That’s way cool the Brigham did good in his track meet, he looks way tall in the picture, crap he might be as tall as me now. That’s cool you saw Jake, how is he doing? That’s so random that all of these random people I knew in high school are randomly getting married. Who was Jessica Myers married too? Ya we heard about the earthquake, that’s so crazy, we just saw a little bit of it on the news, but the little images we saw were unreal, it was like a crazy movie, and I seriously can’t believe what happened. Its way sad, but the church is going to help a ton I imagine. Everything turned out ok with the whole sleepover thing. During the capacitacion thing we had on Thursday with the president, we were reading in 2 Nephi 31 and it just so happened that Elder fiscus, the one that planned the sleepover read the verse that says, can we follow jesuschrist unless we are willing to obey the commandments of god? And president added or in our case... the mission rules. NO WE CANNOT FOLLOW HIM NOR HAVE HIS SPIRIT. I felt bad for fiscus, but we were the only ones that knew what he was talking about ha-ha, its cool how god sets up situations like that. The awesome family in my sector that are all converts except the papa, and the house were at right now to do internet. We are teaching the dad again and he accepted a babtismal date for the tenth of April. Also this guy Luis that I found and taught and helped stop drinking is got baptized on Sunday in the ward el valle. I really am so happy for him; it’s the true joy of sharing the gospel. Its even more special cause I knocked his door, contacted him, taught him, brought him to church and everything and he got babtized.Its so sweet!! I’m going to get a paper soon called the trunky papers and on there I have to fill out a box that says if you guys are going to come get me or no,, so if I don’t get that paper soon I will let you know.. That’s stinks that BYU lost. But at least they got a good seed, its going to be fun watching them play in the tourney.... for you guys.

Well have a good week, I love you guys!

¡Chao! ¡Sigan practicando su español para que me entiendan cuando vuelva!

The lady in the pic with all the notebooks is writing the bible! She is in like 2 kings or something. Her daughter javiera is getting baptized soon.

The pic with all the missionaries is our sector slam last night. We found 3 news that are way good.

March 7, 2011

Hello hello,

Hi familia how are you, this week was really good, we had our zone conference this Friday and it was way good, right now the mission is focused on the book of Mormon and finding new investigators, we found 7 news this week, and we have to find 21 to be able to do our part in completing the goal we have as a mission.

The craziest thing happened on Monday after we got done using internet. Me and my comp had cleaned the pension that morning and we found like a list of names that I had lost a little bit ago, it was a list that another elder made for me of people that could progress that I should visit.. So anyways we found it. In the evening we took a nap and my comp woke up and was like hey is there a street in our sector called occidental or oriental or something? I was like uh no... Well there is Gabriela oriente so ya that could be it. And he said o well I had a dream about some street named that. Then a few hours later a totally remembered my dream, and I had a dream about these names on the list I found. So we grabbed the list and we found the names and they lived on Gabriela oriente. We were like wow.... we totally just connected our dreams together. The next day all our appointments fell and there was like nothing to do, so we passed by that family on the list in Gabriela. A little girl came out and told us to come by later so we went by at like 7. And all our appointments fell that day. And she let us pass by, and we taught this new family of like 5 girls. They definitely had tons of doubts about the book of Mormon and stuff so it’s definitely going to be a process with them if they are going to get baptized. We will see though, because we haven’t been able to pass by since then. The book of Mormon will convert anyone who reads it sincerely, that’s the good thing.

Ha-ha that’s seriously so random. Ben challis and Julia braten? Ben challis has been home for like 3 months! I seriously was liked shocked when I read that, I could never see them together. But that’s way cool anyways.

That’s way crazy about BYU and what happened. Good thing that Steve young works for ESPN ha-ha. That’s kind of crappy though with the whole situation. The whole nation is like making fun of the honor code at BYU. It’s funny that the only religious university that has rules so that the students keep the commandments of god is a Mormon school.

Last night we had to take care of a situation in the zone. Like 6 elders tried to pull off a freaking sleepover and when we called for stats last night we realized that there were more than two missionaries in the pension. So we called them and asked them and they were like ya we messed up were going home right now. We had to call the assistants and we stayed up last night until like 12:30 until the assistants got there. We had already told them no, but they did it anyway. So were going to see how they react with us tomorrow during our class. Thanks you family for everything you do! I love you guys! Bye.

Elder Whitney,

We played basketball this morning at this sweet gym.

February 28, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I love you mom, I really hope you had an awesome week, That’s way sweet you went skiing and stuff, We found a ton of new investigators today that our way awesome.. We also fasted as a mission this Sunday so we could find more investigators... We should have at least one baptism this month; we are teaching this girl named javiera. She still has to change a little bit before she can get baptized. We taught this guy that was a little older and he brought out this book of Mormon that was way old. It had the picture of a family with their testimonies on it, and they were from santaquin Utah, ha-ha it was way random. The guy must have served in Chile before and met Antonio our investigator. My companion is way awesome and we get along good. He is an away awesome teacher and has taught me a lot. This week I was thinking a lot of what I want to do when I get back. Some kid after our English class was talking with me and told me if I had ever considered being a teacher in the university or something but I don’t think I would want to do that. Last night I was praying and wondering and asking if I should try and play football, and last night I had a way sick dream, and I was playing football in this way huge game, and it came down to the last play of the game and I was playing quarterback for some reason but I ran it in like 30 yards to win the game.. It was way sick. I’m confused if that’s supposed to be considered an answer or just a sick dream because I like football haha.but o well. I also would like to be a pilot, but I need more info on what I could de for that. I will have to ask Brent. That’s crazy that nick is going out now... I’m not going to see him for a while...

I can’t believe the jazz traded Darren Williams, I guess that’s pretty sweet though if they are going to get all these other draft picks. That’s hilarious too about the BYU game. That would have been way funny to see. Ya I'm allowed to look at college websites and stuff, to be able to figure things out. It will be a lot easier when I get home but a lot more rushed too so hopefully during the mission I can get it all figured out. Well I love you family, thanks for everything, sorry mom for not wishing you a happy birthday last week. I love you and I hope you have a great week! Bye

Elder Whitney