Thursday, October 10, 2013


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

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