Hola familia!

How is everybody doing?  I loved the pictures of the cars mom!  All the cars here are so boring.  Thanks for all of the emails.  I feel so loved.  I always get so many emails.  When people ask me how many girls I am writing.  I always answer "Rightnow I am writing 5."  They dont realize that I have 4 sisters, and my mom.  Haha they always get so jealous.  So this week was really awesome! (most of the weeks are).  

So after playing tennis, eating and writing you guys on monday.  Me and my comp took a bus down to the very bottom of our mission.  We went down to go teach this new investigator that we have.  The little city is called Valle Nevado.  It is my favorite place in our area.  It is about a 20 minute bus ride.  So anyways, we were going to go teach this new guy and his family.  We were so excited to go teach him, because he was so interested.  But when we got to his house, he was having a big party, and had forgotten about our appointment.  FLIP!!!  So after that we were kind of in a down mood.  But we went over to the familia Novoa to go teach them.  But they were not home either.  So the day was going by pretty terribly.  But we decided to go contacting in this area we both havent been in before.  So by now it was probably about 8:45pm.  We contacted for a couple of minutes with no luck.  So we decided to take the bus home, and go teach a different family.  So we went to what we thought was a bus stop.  We waited for all of 5 minutes, and the bus came.  But when we called for it, it did not stop.  I looked up for the bus stop sign, and realized that it wasnt a bus stop....  I thought "well this day is sucking pretty bad."  So we walked a little bit to look for another bus stop.  We got to the bus stop, and I looked behind me and said to my comp, "Lets contact this house."  It was 9:00pm.  So I went up to the house and yelled for someone.  This little lady walked out, and said "Hola!"  We introduced ourselves, and told her who we were.  We talked with her for about 5 minutes, and then we said "We would like to share our message with you and you family!  May we come in and share it with you."  She said "Sure."  Me and my comp looked at each other with our mouths hanging open....  So we walked right in, and sat down on her couch, and she said "Wait let me go get my daughter."  I was so confused at the situation.  It was 9:00 at night, and one white latino and another gringo come up to your door, and ask "Can we come in and teach you?"  And she said yes!  It was so crazy!  We taught her and her daughter about the restoration.  They had never heard of mormons, or the missionaries.  It was so cool!  The spirit was so strong.  After the lesson we asked if we could come back again, and they both said "yeah!"  But they also said "Next time we want our husband and daughter to listen."  I must have been drooling all over the place....  It was so awesome!  

But there is still more to the story.  So after we got done teaching them, it was 10:00 at night, and we were 20 minutes away from our house....  We walked up to the bus stop and waited.  But no bus, or car was in sight.  I decided that I needed to pray for a bus to come.  10 seconds after I opened my eyes, I hear this guy yell from across the street, "Ven!"  Which means You guys come!  So we walked accross the street, and he said "Hey hop in my car."  I thought to myself....  "What the heck."  We got in his car and asked "Why are you driving us?"  He said "Well there are no buses here at this time of night, and I had a feeling that I needed to help you guys out."  I didnt realize that I had said "Thank you Jesus, you are the bomb."  Out loud.  HAHAHA!  He took us to another bus stop and said "This bus stop has lots of buses that come by."  This guy was not a member, and had no idea who the missionaries are.  It was a mircle!  But it was 10:15, and there were no buses coming.  So I said another prayer, and sure enough, when I opened my eyes, there were lights in the distance.  It was a bus!  I was in shock.  We got on the bus, and the bus took us to the bus stop nearest to our house.  But we were still about a 1 mile away from our house, and it was 10:21.  So I said another prayer, that we would make it home on time, and that we would be safe.  Sure enough we got home at 10:30 exactly, and were safe.  

This story tesitfied to me that Heavenly Father and Jesus look out for their missionaries.  We were giving it all we had to be obedient, and we were doing the lords work.  I am so greatful for everything that Heavenly Father has blessed me with.  The power of a small prayer and some faith can go a long way.  

So Yesterday we went to go teach Celmira (the really old crazy lady).  We got to her house, and yelled for her.  She peaked her head outside and said "Elders I am not doing very good."  We quickly walked inside, and she had slammed her finger in the door, and her finger was split wide open.  You could see her whole finger!  It was so gnarly!  She started to cry and tell us that she has been feeling so terribly lately.  She told us that she has been praying so much for health, and peace.  But nothing was happening.  She said that she has been praying to the Virgin Mary.....  We said to her, "You need to pray to heavenly Father."  She told us that her son has been a jerk, and that we have Her love that she used to have for her son.  Pretty weird, and sad.  But it gets even weirder, and freakier.  She said "I dont want to live anymore.  I know that tonight I am going to die.  And when I die, I am going to come visit you and your companion as a spirit, and show my love for you guys."  I was like "Oh no you are not!"  That is freaky!  I was freaked out...  She asked me to give her a blessing.  So I did, and we left.  Last night I didnt have any spirits come by, so I think that she is ok.  But still a really weird experience.

So it has been a very fun and eventful week.  Thanks for everything!  I love you guys!  Especailly Mom, Dad, Kate, Camille, Abby, and Emma!  My challenge this week is to not under estimate the power of a small prayer, and a little bit of faith.

Chow 

Elder Whiting

How to do missionary work--use the Bishop!

Hola Mom!  

How was being at home in Utah?  How is the ward?  How is everybody doing at home?  Every week passes by so fast.  I have no idea what to write...  haha.  Oh cool fact, I was on TV.  Haha

So this week was pretty boring until Saturday.  Saturday was probably the best day of my mission yet.  So in the morning of saturday, me and my comp called the bishop to let him know that there was going to be a baby blessing.  We were talking with him for a little while, when he asked "What are you guys doing today?"  We said that we were going to teach some families in his area.  He then said "Can I come with you guys?"  We flipped!  We were so excited!  So he came with us from 4pm to 8pm.  It was so awesome!  He was so enthusiastic with all of our less active families, and 2 investgators!  It was so incredible!  We taught 5 lessons with him.  We taught 2 investigators, and 3 less active families.  It was such a good day.  He was so warm and friendly with all of the people we were teaching.  He was also really impressed with how we taught.  He said "We need to do this more often."  Well duhhhhhh!!!!!  HAHA  It was so awesome!  So this sunday, we had 5 less active families, and 1 investigator come to church!  It was so awesome!  Our ward had the biggest attendance of members this year, at 134 members!  It has been such a good week.  

Last night we taught the Familia Oses!  It was such a good lesson.  We taught them about the doctrine of Chirst...  It has now become my favorite subject to study!  I love it because it teaches the doctrine in such simple terms.  Anyway, the lesson was really good.  Oh course for the first 30 minutes we cracked walnuts.  It is supprisingly fun.  After the lesson Hermano Oses hugged me and kissed me on the cheek....  A little weird, but that is what they do here...  haha.  Oh and fun fact for you guys.  Missionaries here are allowed to kiss women on the cheek for the first few visits.  Because it is really disrespectful if you dont.  So everytime you meet a new woman, she kisses you on the cheek....  I feel so weird though.... 

I was thinking, and I havent really told you guys very much about my mission or my area.  I am currently serving in the area San Bernardo, I am in the Quimey Ward.  We currently have 4 missionaries in this ward, but this next change we are getting 6.  Weird..  They are going to be hermanas.  But the hermanas are only allowed to go to one place in our ward.  It is the richer area... And their house is 2 stories tall....  Dang hermanas.  Anyway.  My comp and me have the biggest area in the mission.  We walk so much every day, and take buses and taxis all the time.  We have one of the more ghetto areas in the mission.  The chapel is about a 5 minute walk from our house.  We have about 140 missionaries rightnow in the mission, but by the end of the year we are going to have 250.  Crazy...  

Anyway.... Thanks for all of the emails, and thanks for everything mom!  I love you guys and miss you guys a bunch!  I wish I could skype with you guys, but it will come soon enough!  I love you!

Chow

Elder Whiting

Hey mom!  I got my packages!  Thanks for all of the stuff!  I love my blanket and my ties!  And obviously loved my candy as well.  But it is all gone.  Sad day.  I was freaking out when I saw my packages on my desk!  I got my blanket out and started rolling on my bed with it.  The elders in my room were a little freaked out, but I dont care.  Thanks mom!

Mom thanks for always emailing me!  I love hearing from you.  It makes my day so much better.  It is a really good start to my week when I get to hear from you!  I realized how thankful I am for everything that you have done for me mom.  You would always do my laundry, make me food, and clean up after me without complaining.  Oh and you would put up with my weird self.  Thanks mom for everything!  I truly miss you so much!  I love you mom!  Thanks for everything you have done for me.  You have prepared me so well for a mission.  No one else could have done a good of a job as you mom.  You are the best mom a kid could ask for.  Love you mom.  I miss you too.

So this week is pretty boring.  It was a really fast week.  It is really weird how fast the weeks go by here!  When you guys said that a mission would go by fast, you guys did not do it justice.  It is ridiculous how fast time goes by. 

I went on splits with my district leader.  It was really fun!  He is such an awesome guy!  He is so happy, and so generous.  He goes home in december, and he is still working so hard.  He was, and is such a good example to me in how a missionary should act.  He was really fun too.  On wednsday me and my comp taught the familia Oses!  They are progressing really well.  They are really starting to trust us, which is so important.  Whenever we go into their house, I always try to do service for them and help them crack walnuts.  I figured that if I serve them, they will trust us more.  Thanks dad for teaching me that I need to serve the families that I teach.  They live in really humble circumstances, and they crack and sell walnuts for an income.  It is truly a humbling experience.  I love this family so much.  I have a little bit of a hard time understanding them.  But I do my best. 

We also taught Celmira again.  She is the really old lady.  She is 88 years old.  She is very kind to us, and always loves talking to us.  But she is a little bit apostate... Hahaha She tells us that she hates the Sister missionaries, because they are not genuine with their love.  She does not support Thomas S. Monson.  She tries to use the priesthood too.  But we taught her about general conference, and faith.  We taught her about the importance of Conference because we get to listen to a prophet.  We invited her to come to conference, and she said no.  But something didnt feel right, so we bore our testimonies about being called of god by a prophet to serve our missions here in santiago.  I also challenged her to write questions she had about the gospel.  And that in conference they would be answered.  After that, she said that she would come.  And she volunteered to offer a prayer.  It was one of the sweetest and kindest prayers I have every heard.  She blessed me and my companion with so many things, that I cant every list all of them.  I think that in time (if she has more) she will be able to have a testimony of the prophet. 

It was so nice to see 3 less active families that we invited, come to general conference.  Vicky and her daughter, Josie and her daughter, and Amanda, and her son.  Do you see a pattern in these families...  Yeah no Husbands.  A lot of the guys here are....  (Lets just say that I want to give them a piece of my mind, and some smacking around).  It is so sad to see a wife with so many kids, that is trying to support her kids by herself. 

We were walking in this area, and one of our appointments with a new invesitigator fell through.  It was really a bummer, because we were looking forward to teaching this guy and his family.  We were walking past this less active members house, when I said "We should check up on her."  So we yelled for her, and she came to to window and was so happy to see us.  Her name is hermana Jenifer.  She is such a sweetheart.  She is about 27 years old.  She has some hip porblems, so she has a hard time getting around.  She has one son, and a husband.  Her husband is one of the men that I want to give a smacking around.  He wont let her come to church.  He is really Bi polar.  I think that he is a little abusive.  But I dont want to assume.  Anyway, we taught her about prayer, and the importance of comunicating with our Heavenly Father.  It was such a spiritual lesson.  After the lesson she started to cry.  We were a little confused, because it was after our lesson.  She looked at us and said "Everytime I am having a bad day, or I am feeling down.  You guys show up."  It was so incredible.  I never realized how much the missionaries mean to the people.  I feel like we dont really do anything special, but we were exactly what she needed.  It was such a spiritual experience.  After she said "I know that I need to go to church, and I really want to start going more often."

Well that is my week!  Thanks for all of the emails everybody.  I love hearing from all of you!  This week I have really realized how important missionary work is.  I have realiezed how important the missionaries are to people.  I am going to start giving challenges with every email I send.  I expect you all to follow my challenges.

Challenge:  Give involved with the missionaries at least one time a month.  It helps us so much when we recieve help from the ward.  I can testify that if you guys help, you will recieve so many blessings.  Because I think that we need to work together as a ward.  It is so important. 

Thanks everyone for everything!  I love you mom!  I love you Dad!  I love you Kate!  I love you Camille!  I love you Abby!  I love you Emma! 

Chow 

Elder Whiting