The latest from Joe

We Skyped with Joe on Christmas morning.  He is very happy and loves missionary work, his companion and his mission.  He seems to be doing really well.  Read below for the latest email.  Sorry to have skipped a few, we were very busy.

Hey Everybody!  How is it going?  

This week passed by a little slow, because we couldnt leave our house on the 31st of December.  It was pretty junk, we just cleaned our house all day.....  Mas fome.  This week started off really slow, but it was a pretty awesome week, like all of the weeks.  Like always we keep on working, and are being blessed for our work!  A phrase that I loved from Elder Holland was "Kick when you dont want to kick."  He was talking about swimming.  But it is so awesome, when you are tired, and hungry and thirsty, you dont want to work, but when you work you will see mircles!  

So on thursday we did divisions with some members of the ward.  I left with the Elders quorm president, we went to teach a less active girl in our ward.  When we got to her house she was asleep...  But her mom said we could pass by a little bit later.  So we passed by a little bit later and she let us into her house.  (Her dad has stage 4 pancreatic cancer, But he isnt a member).  We started to teach her, and her dad came and sat down and started to listen to our lesson.  He loved our lesson, and he wants us to come back again to teach him.  hopefully we can teach him about the plan of salvation the next time.  It was pretty awesome!

But the mircles were on Sunday!  In church we had an attendance of 44, it kind of sucked, but we had 11 less active members.  An ex bishop, and 3 families and a Husband and his wife.  They the husband and wife havent been to church in 12 years!  He is a high preist, and she left the church for the catholic church!  But it was incredible!  They loved church, and want to come back again!  They were some of the pioneers for this ward, so we are working really hard with them.  They are the family margas.  

The next mircle happened after church.  We left to work right after lunch, and we knew that it was going to be hard to get into a house and teach anybody right after lunch.  But we went to work anyways.  We walked for probably 2 or 3 hours, and didnt enter into a house.  It sucks, because the sun here is so ridiculously terriblely hot.  But we kept on working, even though we didnt want to.  We were walking when suddenly we heard "Elders!  Come here!"  We were thinking..  "Oh gosh someone wants to bother us."  But we turned around, and there was a man from his window saying "Come here!"  So we walked over to the house, and this little girl walked out, and said "Come in."  So we entered into the house, and there was a lady sitting on her couch with her 4 kids...  She said "Oh my gosh..  There are elders here!"  So to make a long story short.  She is from peru, and her boyfriend is from chile.  They have lived together for 18 years, but they cannot get married, because he is still married to his other wife.  And a divorce is too expensive here, so they cant get a divorce.  But the live with their 4 kids.  The have been looking for missionaries for 2 years!  And they could never find us.  They have been taking the lessons in the house of her mom.  Her son is a member, and she wants her other daughter to be baptized.  But they cant get baptized, because the husband cant get a divorce from his other wife!  But they are trying so hard to make it work so that they can get baptized, go to the temple and be sealed!  

They are so awesome!  They want their son to serve a mission.  He only is 13 years old, but they want him to serve a mission, and they want to be part of the church!  But their situation is so hard, and so complicated, that they cant!  So please pray for them!  They are so awesome!  His name is Walter, and her name is Melina, and their kids are Michael, Romaina, patricio, and angel.  They want to come to church so bad, but they had no idea that our church is really close.  

So those are our mircles this week!  They are pretty crazy!  But I cant testify that in life, when we have hard circumstances, or difficulties, we need to "keep on kicking"  and we will have success!  

I love you guys and challenge you guys to "Keep on Kicking"  in every aspect of your lives!  

Chow 

Elder Whiting

HOLA!!!!!!

This week has been very eventful!  So we have been working with Ana Maria, Claudia, and Camila.  They are so awesome, and are progressing so much!  This week we knew that we had changes on monday, but we were still working hard, like nothing was going to happen.

So on friday when my companion and I found out that we were both leaving our sector, it was kind of a shock.  I thought to myself "Why am I leaving?  I know this sector so well, and I can totally lead this sector."  My companion was really upset that I was leaving because he wanted me to take care of our families.  But we didnt know where we were going or who our companions were going to be.  But on Saturday we got a personal call from President Cook.  He talked with my companion for a little bit and then my companion said "He wants to talk with you....  I was thinking "Oh no what did I do wrong?"  I took the phone and said "Hi President."  He said "Elder Whiting!  Its good to talk to you.  I have an assignment for you."  He told me that there is a missionary in a sector that told president that he doesnt want to serve a mission any more.  His sector is dying, and he hates his mission.  He wants to go home.  So President told me "So I am sending you to him to help him, and to help the sector."  I thought to myself "Wow...  I only have 4 months in my mission....."  But the most overwhelming feeling of peace came over me.  It was so crazy.

So anyway about my new companion.  His name is Elder Bermeo, he is from Colombia, he has 2 sisters and 1 brother.  All of them are members, but both of his parents are not members.  They dont support him on his mission, and they dont want him to be here.  He served in the military for 1 year before his mission.  He doesnt like gringos...  But the funny thing is, he was in my district before, and me and him get along so well!  

About the sector that we will be working in.  It is called Nocedal.  In the beginging of the year it had 88 people attending sacrament.  Now they have 32...  They have a new bishop, and he is fighting with the members in the ward.  

I am so excited to work with Elder Bermeo, and I cannot wait to start working!  We are going to work so hard!  But I know it is going to be really hard at first.  Me and Elder Gonzalez gave all of our families to the two new missionaries in our sector.  

I love you guys and miss you guys a lot!  But I am loving my mission!!!!!

Chow

Elder Whiting

Hola!  Hey mom!  How was meeting with all of your friends?  I was thinking the same thing about my mission, that I would be able to come back here and meet with all of the families, but then I thought again.  I dont think I would come back here if I wasnt a missionary.  It is a little too sketchy for that.  But I am loving it.  This week was really hard because I was thinking about you guys a lot.  I noticed that the time went by a lot slower, and the week was a lot harder.  I loved those pictures you sent!  I love that one with lavell edwards grand daughter!  I also love that picture with all of your friends from japan!  Sounds like you are loving japan!  But I always knew you would.  I really miss you mom.  I love you too!  Keep on writing me!  Getting your emails always is the highlight of my week.  I love you mom!  

HOLA!!!!!  ¿Como estan?  

It is getting so hard to write things!  The time goes by so fast, and I never can remember very much.  But this week was a little bit slower than the other weeks.  We have had to give some of our families to the Hermanas......   I am ticked.  Those were our families.  Dang Hermanas.  Oh well, they are pretty awesome.  They work really hard and have a lot of sucess.  

This next week is going to be really interesting.  Tomorrow we have a devotional with all of the Missions from Santiago with ELDER HOLLAND!!!!!!!!!!!   So stoked!  Wednsday all of the chile soccer teams play, which means that we will not get a chance to teach.  On thursday we have divisions with a different zone.  And friday my comp and I go into Santiago Central to get my visa...  Weird.  I have been here for 3 1/2 months...  I thought about that the other day....  It is so weird how fast everything goes.  This week has so much fun stuff!!!!  

We have been teaching Ana Maria, Claudia, and Camila so much!  They are the family that we found contacting!  They are so awesome!  Every time we show up at their house, they have their Books of Mormon ready with their scripture markers!  I love it.  They are such a sweet family.  The other night Ana Maria made dinner for us.  It was pretty awesome.  

I had an interview with president on tuesday!  He said that me and my comp are doing good things in our sector, and that we need to keep it up.  He also said that our mission is having so much sucess with all of the less active members.  When our mission first opened up 4 months ago, we had a activity percentage of 5% now we are at 20%!  So sweet!!!!  Our mission is one of the few missions, where they count reactivations the same as baptisms.  Oh we also found out that for christmas we have an all day activity with all of the mission.  We are going to play sports in the morning, a big lunch, and watch a a disney movie!!!!!  So stoked!  I cant wait.  

The familia Oses are doing ok.  We havent had a lesson with Hermano Oses in 2 weeks...  But we got the chance to talk with his wife and his daughter!  They are doing really good, and want to come to church.  They are so awesome!  They have progressed so much!  We have another appointment with them soon!  Keep them in your prayers please!  They need it!  

All in all, this week has been pretty good.  I love you guys and love hearing from you.  I hope you guys are all doing good!  And hope that you guys are loving life.  

Chow

Elder Whiting

This week has been really good, but really slow.  I dont know why it was so long.  But it was.  But it still was a really good week.  Probably because I was thinking about home a lot this week.  I have realized the weeks go by so much faster when I dont think about home.....  Which is weird.  But oh well.  We had changes two weeks ago.  I am still with my companion, Elder Gonzalez, but the next change he is probably gonna go.  He will have been here in Quimey for 8 months....  I think he is getting ready to leave.  He has been here for a while.  But he still is pushing hard.  He is a great example to me.  He has been such a good trainer.  It has been difficult sometimes, but things keep on pushing on. 

This week we have had 6 new investigators, and have taught a bunch of lessons too.  We are teaching the most awesome family!  They have never heard of the mormons before, and are being really receptive to our lessons.  I love teaching them.  Ana Maria is the grandma, Claudia is her daugter, and Camila is the daughter of claudia.  Ana maria has a husband too, but he is deaf and cannot understand very much, so he sits in the other room.  It is so awesome!  They are so cool!  I am teaching Camila English right now too.  I think that Claudia and Ana Maria want me to date Camila....  Weird....   They dont really understand the whole missionary thing.  

The Familia Oses....  I think that I have never been so sad before.  Hermano Oses started drinking again with his friends.  We havent taught them once this week.  I am so frustrated with his friends, because they are such a bad influence for him.  Ughh I get so irritated with some people here....   Please remember them in your prayers, especially Hermano Oses.  

So funny story.  So me and my companion were walking home one night, and we got home with 15 minutes to spare, so we decided to do some contacts.  We walked down the road a little ways, and decided to start with this one house.  So we yelled for this lady, and she walked out, and said "Hola."  We replied, and started talking to her about her garden.  We then asked her "Can we come in and teach you?"  She said "yeah sure, but you have to answer a question correctly first."  Me and my comp looked at each other and said "Ok."  This question has got to be one of the most weird and random questions.  She said "Who are the Grandparents of Jesus Christ?"  We both said "We have no idea."  She said "Sorry you guys cant come in then."  So we asked her, "Who are they?"  She said "Ana and Joaquin."  It took all of my might not to laugh.  I started to walk away, because I started to laugh.  My comp just said "Ok chow."  We got a little ways away, and busted out laughing!  I told him that we need to tell the other missionaries in our house, so that they can go to her house and answer her question.  I thought that would be really funny!  

So me and my comp dont have a key to our house, so I found a new way to get in to our house.  I fold up a pass along card, and slide it up by the door handle and break into our house.  We have had to do it every night now for a couple of weeks.  Oh and we have a cat and dog....  Our next door neighbor has a cat, and he never is over there, he is always in our yard.  His name is Rafiki.  His is the most awesome cat in the world, because he eats the rats...  The dog is also from one of our neighbors.  His name is alberto..  He is a champ.  So I guess we have 2 pets.  They are the coolest cats on the block.  

Thanks for everything!  I love all you guys.  Thanks for all of your prayers.  But please keep them up, I need all the help I can get.  I miss you guys!

Chow

Elder Whiting

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