Happy New Years Eve!
I definitely encourage you all to make goals for this coming year. Goals that are realistic but will make you stretch. Then do everything within your power to achieve the goals this year! In this way 2013 can be a year of miracles. I also encourage you to make a goal about what you can do this year to be an even better member-missionary. When we are truly converted we want to share the gospel. Look for little opportunities of service and love for nonmembers, active members, and less active as well.
I think that is all on my mind because yesterday was a 5th Sunday and I had to give a talk in Reseda again haha. 5 months ago, on the very first Sunday of my mission I was standing there at the same pulpit in the same ward giving a talk about missionary work as well. And you know what is really cool? Maybe the ward hasn't changed that much, but I have changed a lot. I am a better missionary, a harder worker, nicer, better at Spanish, more knowledgeable in the gospel, more outgoing to talk to people on the streets etc. It is cool to be able to look back and see that I am better. But at the same time I know I have a long way to go, so I'm excited to see where 2013 will take me, what more miracles I will see, who I will help, and how I can let the mission change me forever.
That being said, one of the cool things about Hermana Mulliner is that she always pulls these jokes out of I don't know where but they are really funny.... she is hilarious and so fun to be around. But here are two of hers, one is an English joke and one is a Spanish. I have the answers at the bottom of the letter.
1) Why do so many people in the Book of Mormon have sore knees?
2) Cuantas estrellas hay en los cielos?
Anyway... I have a cool story I'd like to tell about Hermana Mulliner. You know the story you told me on skype about how you have been collecting coins and you gave them away? (In fact, if you happen to have that story you told me, you should attach it to the blog!) Well you want to know something cool? On the way home, Hermana Mulliner was telling me that a year ago she received one such jar of coins. She said it was given to her and it was to help her out for her mission fund. It is kind of cool to think about it. You can take care of some of Heavenly Father's children, and have trust that someone else will take care of another child of Heavenly Father elsewhere. Suddenly the world is full of little acts of Christian service as everyone is taking care of each other. It is kind of like the talk about the bees from general conference. Each bee doesn't do a huge amount of work... only like 1/12 of a teaspoon's worth. But it is when all of the bees do their part that you get a lot of honey. As we do our part and have faith that others will do theirs too the world becomes a better place.
On Christmas I finished reading through the Book of Mormon in Spanish and I was so excited but the next day I started right up again in 1 Nephi 1. This time while reading through it, I actually took the advice/activity in the Chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel under the Mission President section where you get a fresh paperback copy and read it while highlighting different things in different colors like every time it mentions Christ, what his words are, what his attributes are, etc. I am only in Chapter 7 or 8 now, but reading while doing this is so helpful to me. I am learning so many new principles all the time and the Holy Ghost is able to teach me so much more. I am also super excited because I can read through it with ease and am understanding everything even though it is in Spanish. It is so cool because when I first started last time I needed to have my English and Spanish copies right next to each other and read them side by side. I love the Spanish language and am excited that little by little I'm working on learning it better.
Hermana Mulliner was still sick a lot of this week so for several days she like slept all day then we went out to have one or two appointments in the night. Like every time she ate she got huge stomach pains, so for several days she just ate crackers, apple sauce, and simple things like that to let her system kind of reset and as of a couple of days ago, she is okay again! Yay! But yeah, our numbers of lessons weren't fantastic because of that, but the highlight of this week was definitely at the baptism we had last night. Antonio got baptized and I attached a photo we took right beforehand. It was so great!! His is such a simple but cool story. He literally got baptized a month and 2 days after we first met him. It seemed like his conversion process was so quick and so easy as far as our work was. When I look back, I remember he did have tons of questions at first. Like at our first lesson he had so many questions and we had to tell him that we can't answer everything in only one visit. He didn't accept the Book of Mormon as scripture right away. He wanted proof to know where the gold plates are now so he can see it. But now he is baptized. And for me that is a testimony that there are people in the world who are so prepared for the gospel. It is a testimony that people can get baptized in a month. But most of all, it is a testimony to me of the importance of commitments. We never had one of those super memorable lessons with him where the spirit was there undeniably strong. But with him, he kept every single commitment we gave him and so all along the way, he was able to have mini spiritual experiences so that eventually he did come to know it was true. Oh and it was also a testimony that the Lord helps the missionaries who are learning languages too. He is from Peru and he speaks very fast and slurred so we didn't understand a lot of what he said and he didn't understand a lot of what we said probably. But the spirit was able to help us. We loved going over there because he was so funny all the time. We like almost couldn't stop laughing sometimes. Like he listens so intently in church and he is always catching things we didn't expect him to. Like one day he said something like, "I'd like to welcome you to this meeting. I am presiding and Hermana Whetten will be saying the opening prayer today." It was so funny! He also saw a tithing slip in those little boxes at church and so he brought one home and so at the next lesson it was just sitting there on his table and so we got to explain all about how that works. It was so cool! But what a miracle he was for us!!
I have one more story I'd like to share. After the baptism last night we wanted to get at least one more lesson in before we came home to do some language study (since we can't fit that in Sunday mornings). We tried several people who we had thought of and we got some return appointments, but the people weren't available for a lesson right then. And I just had the idea that after we try the last one we can go run by Jose Antonio to check on how he's doing and try to get his new phone number. It didn't seem like a magnificent thought or a huge stroke of revelation, but when we got there, he was telling us about how he's been a bit depressed during the holidays because he's been feeling lonely since his family is having some problems and he recently hurt his foot and he had said a prayer that maybe we would come and not long after, we showed up. So to me it didn't seem like revelation at the time, but God knows Jose Antonio and his needs and I am just glad I was able to be an instrument in God's hand to do his work that night. I think on a mission maybe we get so used to listening to the spirit that we don't even realize when we're receiving revelation like that and when it's just us. But it is cool to know that I must be doing something right and I hope that I can continue to be worthy for little spiritual revelations like that.
Anyway, have a fantastic new years! Go make great goals and do everything within your power to achieve the goals and let's see even more miracles in 2013!!!
~Hermana Whetten
Answers:
1) Because of all of the Nephites... knee fights haha!
2) cincuenta.... sin cuenta :D
Monday, January 14, 2013
Monday, December 24th
Hello!! Merry Christmas Eve!!! Isn't that so great!!?! I'm excited. I know Christmas will be different this year for me, but it'll be so good! I'm excited to be able to video chat with all of you tomorrow at around 10 give or take! But thanks for all your love and support and everything always. It means so much to me.
Okay... so this week was...weird haha. It was just not a normal week at all. Last Monday was a preparation day which was lazy since we weren't feeling the greatest. On Tuesday Hermana Mulliner was stomach sick still and so we stayed inside all day long (I actually got pretty far on my Plan of Salvation/Gospel of Christ board game haha! On Wednesday we went to the temple. On Thursday we had weekly planning. On Friday we had exchanges. On Saturday we had an exchange within an exchange (our cool little Inception moment haha!) and a branch party for the Spanish YSA branch. On Sunday we had church and Hermana Mulliner still wasn't feeling that great (we're not sure we trust the food at ward party events anymore). Today is Christmas Eve and preparation day ends at 6 and we're going to eat dinner at Alba's house but it is a rule we have to be back in the apartment by 7 because it is Christmas Eve and they want us to be safe (we're supposed to do a deep clean, but our apartment is really clean, so we're going to do normal cleaning and then when we're done we'll play games or listen to our Christmas music or watch some of the church DVDs we have or something like that). Then tomorrow is Christmas and we're going to talk with our families. We're not allowed to do some parts of missionary work like finding and knocking doors and stuff, but we are planning on doing work with less actives or recent converts or people like that. Thus, our number of normal lessons has been very weird this week definitely!!
About the temple first of all, it was so great!!! The Los Angeles Temple is so beautiful and HUGE too. It is also one of the temples where there are different rooms for every step and all the rooms were hand painted. It was good because it keeps you actively engaged the whole time and helps me mentally distinguish all the different steps. I loved that the Creation room had stars on the ceiling that twinkled! It was so pretty. It made me laugh that the Telestial room was basically painted up like New Mexico. I was like, "that's okay, I still love New Mexico!" One thing that I realized this temple trip was that the endowment process is all about missionary work! Think about it... there are people out there who are looking for the true messengers from God to help them know what they have to do to return back to Heavenly Father. That is what we can bring to them! But I just loved going and I feel this newly renewed connection with Heavenly Father; the huge love he has for me and that the work I have done is acceptable in his eyes. I feel like I've renewed my commitment to go forward with my mission doing my very best to live up to everything!
On the way home from the temple, Hermana Espinoza decided to take us the scenic route so that we could get to know California a little bit. So we drove through Beverly Hills (those houses are unbelievably nice). We weren't near it, but at a distance we saw the Hollywood sign up on the hill. We drove through Bel Air. We drove through the mountains surrounding the San Fernando Valley so we got to see the whole valley from above. It was crazy cool and now I can say I've been in those places!!
With the Elders they go on exchanges with the district leader at least once a transfer and the district leaders exchange with the zone leaders and the zone leaders with the assistants to the president. They do exchanges to help you get more experience with different companions and different areas and you can also get trained to make sure you are doing all the little daily things the Preach My Gospel way. But since President Hall's come in, I'd never been on a sister exchange. But President Hall figured out how he'd like to conduct those and so this transfers those were started up. He has a set of sisters who are basically in charge of all the exchanges for all the Spanish sisters and a set for all the English sisters and so we just exchange with them. So last Friday was our first exchange and it ended up that Hermana Zepeda came here and Hermana Mulliner went to North Hollywood. I was so excited to get to spend that time with Hermana Zepeda because she is so great. She has these powerful stories that she'd tell me about her conversion story and the things that are still hard for her even to this day and everything like that. It was great to be able to bring her to several of the big investigators so they could hear her testify so powerfully about that.
On Saturday we had our little exchange within an exchange because Hermana Fish got a urinary tract infection but they had some important lessons that morning. So I got to go to the urgent care with Hermana Fish and Hermana Zepeda went on an exchange with Hermana Vila for the lessons. It was fun and all, but it made me laugh how the exchange didn't really end up going as planned.
Antonio is right on track to get baptized next week and so we are so excited for him! Once again, it has all seemed too easy, but we feel like he's made all the changes. He loves going to church and he loves the missionaries and members. He keeps all of his commitments and he is so great! He has met with missionaries in the past evidently and at this point in time he is just so prepared. We love meeting with him too because he will just laugh and joke with us about the silly situations that happen like how he lives in a teeny house he is renting behind the house and so we always bring chairs since he only has 3 chairs and we have to bring members with us to all the lessons. He is just so great!
I have to tell you about the silly situation last night at dinner. There is this Hermana in our ward who has such a beautiful and strong testimony. She is one of those super strong examples that everyone in the ward looks up to and she is just such a great speaker and teacher. It is interesting being in this calling as a missionary, though, because everyone just opens up and tells you everything that's ever happened in their lives. And so she opened up and has had a hard life and she is going through such a hard time right now. It's especially hard because they have a daughter on a mission and right around the time that she left the dad went inactive. But when people tell us stories about their life like that we just feel such a great Christ like love for them. But after talking to her for a while we had a lesson with the two youngest sons and I'm not sure why, but after the lesson they just started bringing us all these random things to give us. Like they gave us each an apple. They gave us each a chocolate coin or two. We each got 7 random coins (they counted them out). I got a broken music box that belongs to their sister on a mission. Then the youngest one came up to Hermana Mulliner and was like, "do you get itchy sometimes?" She was like, "no" but he proceeded to give her his itch cream. We were laughing so hard. We tried to sneakily leave the presents at their house, but the mom was like, "you'd better take your presents, they gave them to you!" HAHA!! I'm still laughing about it while writing this. Some situations like that on the mission that happen to us are so great. Like we couldn't have made up stuff like that.
Anyway, I'm excited to get to talk to you tomorrow. I hope you all have the best Christmas ever and try to remember the true meaning of Christmas and what gift you want to give Christ this year!
~Hermana Whetten
Okay... so this week was...weird haha. It was just not a normal week at all. Last Monday was a preparation day which was lazy since we weren't feeling the greatest. On Tuesday Hermana Mulliner was stomach sick still and so we stayed inside all day long (I actually got pretty far on my Plan of Salvation/Gospel of Christ board game haha! On Wednesday we went to the temple. On Thursday we had weekly planning. On Friday we had exchanges. On Saturday we had an exchange within an exchange (our cool little Inception moment haha!) and a branch party for the Spanish YSA branch. On Sunday we had church and Hermana Mulliner still wasn't feeling that great (we're not sure we trust the food at ward party events anymore). Today is Christmas Eve and preparation day ends at 6 and we're going to eat dinner at Alba's house but it is a rule we have to be back in the apartment by 7 because it is Christmas Eve and they want us to be safe (we're supposed to do a deep clean, but our apartment is really clean, so we're going to do normal cleaning and then when we're done we'll play games or listen to our Christmas music or watch some of the church DVDs we have or something like that). Then tomorrow is Christmas and we're going to talk with our families. We're not allowed to do some parts of missionary work like finding and knocking doors and stuff, but we are planning on doing work with less actives or recent converts or people like that. Thus, our number of normal lessons has been very weird this week definitely!!
About the temple first of all, it was so great!!! The Los Angeles Temple is so beautiful and HUGE too. It is also one of the temples where there are different rooms for every step and all the rooms were hand painted. It was good because it keeps you actively engaged the whole time and helps me mentally distinguish all the different steps. I loved that the Creation room had stars on the ceiling that twinkled! It was so pretty. It made me laugh that the Telestial room was basically painted up like New Mexico. I was like, "that's okay, I still love New Mexico!" One thing that I realized this temple trip was that the endowment process is all about missionary work! Think about it... there are people out there who are looking for the true messengers from God to help them know what they have to do to return back to Heavenly Father. That is what we can bring to them! But I just loved going and I feel this newly renewed connection with Heavenly Father; the huge love he has for me and that the work I have done is acceptable in his eyes. I feel like I've renewed my commitment to go forward with my mission doing my very best to live up to everything!
On the way home from the temple, Hermana Espinoza decided to take us the scenic route so that we could get to know California a little bit. So we drove through Beverly Hills (those houses are unbelievably nice). We weren't near it, but at a distance we saw the Hollywood sign up on the hill. We drove through Bel Air. We drove through the mountains surrounding the San Fernando Valley so we got to see the whole valley from above. It was crazy cool and now I can say I've been in those places!!
With the Elders they go on exchanges with the district leader at least once a transfer and the district leaders exchange with the zone leaders and the zone leaders with the assistants to the president. They do exchanges to help you get more experience with different companions and different areas and you can also get trained to make sure you are doing all the little daily things the Preach My Gospel way. But since President Hall's come in, I'd never been on a sister exchange. But President Hall figured out how he'd like to conduct those and so this transfers those were started up. He has a set of sisters who are basically in charge of all the exchanges for all the Spanish sisters and a set for all the English sisters and so we just exchange with them. So last Friday was our first exchange and it ended up that Hermana Zepeda came here and Hermana Mulliner went to North Hollywood. I was so excited to get to spend that time with Hermana Zepeda because she is so great. She has these powerful stories that she'd tell me about her conversion story and the things that are still hard for her even to this day and everything like that. It was great to be able to bring her to several of the big investigators so they could hear her testify so powerfully about that.
On Saturday we had our little exchange within an exchange because Hermana Fish got a urinary tract infection but they had some important lessons that morning. So I got to go to the urgent care with Hermana Fish and Hermana Zepeda went on an exchange with Hermana Vila for the lessons. It was fun and all, but it made me laugh how the exchange didn't really end up going as planned.
Antonio is right on track to get baptized next week and so we are so excited for him! Once again, it has all seemed too easy, but we feel like he's made all the changes. He loves going to church and he loves the missionaries and members. He keeps all of his commitments and he is so great! He has met with missionaries in the past evidently and at this point in time he is just so prepared. We love meeting with him too because he will just laugh and joke with us about the silly situations that happen like how he lives in a teeny house he is renting behind the house and so we always bring chairs since he only has 3 chairs and we have to bring members with us to all the lessons. He is just so great!
I have to tell you about the silly situation last night at dinner. There is this Hermana in our ward who has such a beautiful and strong testimony. She is one of those super strong examples that everyone in the ward looks up to and she is just such a great speaker and teacher. It is interesting being in this calling as a missionary, though, because everyone just opens up and tells you everything that's ever happened in their lives. And so she opened up and has had a hard life and she is going through such a hard time right now. It's especially hard because they have a daughter on a mission and right around the time that she left the dad went inactive. But when people tell us stories about their life like that we just feel such a great Christ like love for them. But after talking to her for a while we had a lesson with the two youngest sons and I'm not sure why, but after the lesson they just started bringing us all these random things to give us. Like they gave us each an apple. They gave us each a chocolate coin or two. We each got 7 random coins (they counted them out). I got a broken music box that belongs to their sister on a mission. Then the youngest one came up to Hermana Mulliner and was like, "do you get itchy sometimes?" She was like, "no" but he proceeded to give her his itch cream. We were laughing so hard. We tried to sneakily leave the presents at their house, but the mom was like, "you'd better take your presents, they gave them to you!" HAHA!! I'm still laughing about it while writing this. Some situations like that on the mission that happen to us are so great. Like we couldn't have made up stuff like that.
Anyway, I'm excited to get to talk to you tomorrow. I hope you all have the best Christmas ever and try to remember the true meaning of Christmas and what gift you want to give Christ this year!
~Hermana Whetten
Monday, December 17, 2012
Okay, another has week come and gone extremely quickly. Let's see... first of all, for the Christmas video call via gchat, a family said we can come to their house around 9am California time mas o menos. I think Hermana Mulliner is going to go first, so that means that I will probably be available somewhere around 9:40-10is possibly assuming there are no technical or other difficulties at the member's house. I know you are in a different time zone, but I'm never sure how to figure that out so I'll let you do the math.
Just to let you know, I did receive the package. Thanks a ton! We love the pillowcases that said to open early! Did you make them? They are so beautiful!! Thanks!!!
Now for this week... whew. What a week! We were so crazy busy the whole time that it just flew by. Each mission president has the opportunity to establish what are called standards of excellence for the mission, which is kind of like a recipe so you can try to spread your efforts out in the correct proportions. So those established for our mission right now are that each companionship has 1 baptism per month, always has 3 baptismal dates for the future, has 5 investigators at church each week, has 8 lessons with members each week, and 4 new investigators each week. It is hard to set huge goals like that for the rest of forever when you're not sure how you can make it work out, but we decided that our area is doing so well, so we were going to try our very hardest to meet all of the standards of excellence for at least one week. We were so close too!! We made or exceeded every single one of them except that of having 5 investigators at church. We had 4. That is definitely the hardest one to have happen because it feels like it has nothing to do with our choice. The hard part too was that we had several other people who could have or should have come as well and then we couldn't even get a hold of them this week. It was sad. But I guess that means we'll have to keep working to make all of the standards of excellence another week! It may not be this week, but it'll happen sometime!! I can't remember if I mentioned it already or not, but this Wednesday is our huge temple trip, so I get to go to the LA Temple for the very first time!! I am extremely excited!! It will be so wonderful! I've seen pictures and heard stories and evidently it is HUGE, but it will be so great to be able to go to a temple again finally!
Some stories from this week... we have an investigator named Antonio who we've only taught around 4 lessons to thus far, but he is a person who it seems like has been so prepared for the gospel in his life. He has come to church twice already and he likes it. We had a ward Christmas/end of the year dinner and dance and he had a blast. He really likes it all. It's funny because it seems like it is too easy. Like he keeps all of the commitments we leave with him and he really likes it all. If everything continues to go as planned, he should be baptized by the end of the year which will have been a little over a month of having known him.
We did meet a really interesting new investigator this week. He was referred to us by some elders in a different area who ran into him on a sidewalk. He has had a really hard life. On our first visit with him, he straight up started talking about how his life is so bad and how he has been into drugs for around 35 years but he is tired of it and he doesn't have a job and is almost out on the streets and doesn't have any food in his house. On our second visit we brought Hermano and Hermana Escober. That was Alba's first time being out to help teach with the missionaries since she got baptized a few weeks ago. She was so great!! She bore such a strong testimony and if nothing else, I was glad I was there to hear that!! That was so beautiful to witness! But it was perfect because Hermano Escobar is in charge of the addiction recovery program here, so he was able to invite him to that. Then on Sunday he also received permission from the Bishop to get some food to him to help him out this week. The very sad part is that he was going to go to church and we even had a member set up to take him, but all of Sunday morning he never answered his phone. In fact, he still hasn't answered since. It almost feels like he was scared away somehow. We have no idea what happened to him between Saturday and now. I hope he didn't get scared away somehow. We were helping him out so much. He even said that he needed to learn more about God. And that he recognized that he'd be dumb if he didn't take opportunities like this that God is giving him while he had the chance. He told the analogy of a person who was drowning and three times people came to him to throw him a rope or floatation device etc and three times he refused it saying that God will save him. So when he died and went before God and asked why God didn't save him, God told him that 3 times he sent people to him to help him. He told us that story and he definitely is that person drowning right now. I hope that sometime this week he'll accept the help God is giving him at this point in his life!
But anyway, this was such a good week. The date 12-12-12 came and passed. Halfway through weekly planning we took a break to get smoothies at a nearby shop just around the corner which was really fun. We've been coming home each night so tired because we've been working so hard but it is great. We had a comp study with the zone leaders one day and Zone Training Meeting another day this week and between the two of them, I received more ideas of how I can do things more efficiently and how it is possible to achieve the standards of excellence. We went to the ward Christmas party thing on Saturday and I think something in some of the food was bad because at least 4 out of the 6 of us missionaries in the Reseda ward got sick between yesterday and today. Elder Jossie got the worst of it and had to go to the hospital on Saturday night. I was sick mainly on Sunday morning but we did come home early that night and I just went to sleep and slept for like 12 hours straight and am pretty much better now. Hermana Mulliner didn't get sick until this morning and so she took her turn sleeping for several hours this morning. Crazy stuff, but hopefully we'll all be completely better within the next few days. I say that that's not too bad for me, though because this is the first time I've been sick since I got a cold at the MTC clear back in June.
Besides, that, as a quick Christmas thought, I'd like to encourage you all to think of something you can give to Christ during this season and for this coming year. He's given us so much, so we can all give him a little bit in return.
Anyway, have a great week and then I'll talk to you next week! (That is so crazy. It doesn't feel like Christmas to me at all. Like the weather is cold, but a lot of the trees still have leaves or are just starting to change color. It doesn't snow here at all in the valley etc. So it doesn't really feel even like December nonetheless Christmas. Plus we are so busy all the time that time is just flying by all of a sudden it is already the 17th of December. How crazy!!)
~Hermana Whetten
Just to let you know, I did receive the package. Thanks a ton! We love the pillowcases that said to open early! Did you make them? They are so beautiful!! Thanks!!!
Now for this week... whew. What a week! We were so crazy busy the whole time that it just flew by. Each mission president has the opportunity to establish what are called standards of excellence for the mission, which is kind of like a recipe so you can try to spread your efforts out in the correct proportions. So those established for our mission right now are that each companionship has 1 baptism per month, always has 3 baptismal dates for the future, has 5 investigators at church each week, has 8 lessons with members each week, and 4 new investigators each week. It is hard to set huge goals like that for the rest of forever when you're not sure how you can make it work out, but we decided that our area is doing so well, so we were going to try our very hardest to meet all of the standards of excellence for at least one week. We were so close too!! We made or exceeded every single one of them except that of having 5 investigators at church. We had 4. That is definitely the hardest one to have happen because it feels like it has nothing to do with our choice. The hard part too was that we had several other people who could have or should have come as well and then we couldn't even get a hold of them this week. It was sad. But I guess that means we'll have to keep working to make all of the standards of excellence another week! It may not be this week, but it'll happen sometime!! I can't remember if I mentioned it already or not, but this Wednesday is our huge temple trip, so I get to go to the LA Temple for the very first time!! I am extremely excited!! It will be so wonderful! I've seen pictures and heard stories and evidently it is HUGE, but it will be so great to be able to go to a temple again finally!
Some stories from this week... we have an investigator named Antonio who we've only taught around 4 lessons to thus far, but he is a person who it seems like has been so prepared for the gospel in his life. He has come to church twice already and he likes it. We had a ward Christmas/end of the year dinner and dance and he had a blast. He really likes it all. It's funny because it seems like it is too easy. Like he keeps all of the commitments we leave with him and he really likes it all. If everything continues to go as planned, he should be baptized by the end of the year which will have been a little over a month of having known him.
We did meet a really interesting new investigator this week. He was referred to us by some elders in a different area who ran into him on a sidewalk. He has had a really hard life. On our first visit with him, he straight up started talking about how his life is so bad and how he has been into drugs for around 35 years but he is tired of it and he doesn't have a job and is almost out on the streets and doesn't have any food in his house. On our second visit we brought Hermano and Hermana Escober. That was Alba's first time being out to help teach with the missionaries since she got baptized a few weeks ago. She was so great!! She bore such a strong testimony and if nothing else, I was glad I was there to hear that!! That was so beautiful to witness! But it was perfect because Hermano Escobar is in charge of the addiction recovery program here, so he was able to invite him to that. Then on Sunday he also received permission from the Bishop to get some food to him to help him out this week. The very sad part is that he was going to go to church and we even had a member set up to take him, but all of Sunday morning he never answered his phone. In fact, he still hasn't answered since. It almost feels like he was scared away somehow. We have no idea what happened to him between Saturday and now. I hope he didn't get scared away somehow. We were helping him out so much. He even said that he needed to learn more about God. And that he recognized that he'd be dumb if he didn't take opportunities like this that God is giving him while he had the chance. He told the analogy of a person who was drowning and three times people came to him to throw him a rope or floatation device etc and three times he refused it saying that God will save him. So when he died and went before God and asked why God didn't save him, God told him that 3 times he sent people to him to help him. He told us that story and he definitely is that person drowning right now. I hope that sometime this week he'll accept the help God is giving him at this point in his life!
But anyway, this was such a good week. The date 12-12-12 came and passed. Halfway through weekly planning we took a break to get smoothies at a nearby shop just around the corner which was really fun. We've been coming home each night so tired because we've been working so hard but it is great. We had a comp study with the zone leaders one day and Zone Training Meeting another day this week and between the two of them, I received more ideas of how I can do things more efficiently and how it is possible to achieve the standards of excellence. We went to the ward Christmas party thing on Saturday and I think something in some of the food was bad because at least 4 out of the 6 of us missionaries in the Reseda ward got sick between yesterday and today. Elder Jossie got the worst of it and had to go to the hospital on Saturday night. I was sick mainly on Sunday morning but we did come home early that night and I just went to sleep and slept for like 12 hours straight and am pretty much better now. Hermana Mulliner didn't get sick until this morning and so she took her turn sleeping for several hours this morning. Crazy stuff, but hopefully we'll all be completely better within the next few days. I say that that's not too bad for me, though because this is the first time I've been sick since I got a cold at the MTC clear back in June.
Besides, that, as a quick Christmas thought, I'd like to encourage you all to think of something you can give to Christ during this season and for this coming year. He's given us so much, so we can all give him a little bit in return.
Anyway, have a great week and then I'll talk to you next week! (That is so crazy. It doesn't feel like Christmas to me at all. Like the weather is cold, but a lot of the trees still have leaves or are just starting to change color. It doesn't snow here at all in the valley etc. So it doesn't really feel even like December nonetheless Christmas. Plus we are so busy all the time that time is just flying by all of a sudden it is already the 17th of December. How crazy!!)
~Hermana Whetten
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Monday Dec. 10th
Hmmm... I'm not sure I have that many special requests for the Christmas package because you've been so good to me and have sent me like everything I've been asking for lately and more. I'm not sure if there are any more of the homemade fruit leather things, but those are always good. Also, if you're throwing in snacks, I have a little sweet tooth for fruit snacks haha. You are seriously the best. By the way, did you get the package I sent home with the puzzles and Peruvian nativity and stuff?
It's funny that I'm even mentioning any sweets because I've been good about not eating junk food in the house. But, you know, Christmas can be an exception haha. See, what I've been finding out is that it is so easy to gain weight on the mission. At times it kind of feels like you have no control on what you eat and thus no control on your weight. The ward is so good about providing us a dinner every night and they are usually pretty huge. But I realized a couple of things. I may not have that much control on what I eat for dinner (and I pretty much feel like I have to eat it all because I don't want to offend anyone), but I do have control over what I eat for breakfast and lunch. Like if you think about it, you're supposed to eat like 1200-1400 calories or something like that to maintain or lose some weight. So if a dinner feeds you automatically like 600-800 calories, then you just have to be careful to eat breakfast and lunch which is closer to 300-400 calories. Plus if you have good workouts every day, then you're set. We got a copy of the Insanity workout DVDs and so we are definitely working out really well haha! They are so intense but it is great. I definitely have a testimony that living the word of wisdom helps you be healthier and more receptive to the spirit. If you think about it, your spirit is able to be in charge instead of your body. Like the type of thing where you eat to live rather than live to eat.
Anyway, this was another busy week. We definitely saw miracles and every night we were so tired. Sometimes I feel quite a bit of stress, so I'm working on being able to manage that a bit better. It is hard that I'm now the one who knows the area really well, I know the people, and I want to be the very best I can be because I want this area to become better etc. I really push myself to working hard, planning a lot, speaking Spanish a lot. So it makes sense that I feel stress sometimes. But I'm working on that. And to be completely honest, I'd rather feel stressed out a bit and like exhausted when I get home every day than to be lazy. I don't want to live with a single regret of something I should have done better that I could have. Feeling some stress helps me know that I'm growing stronger. Like a plant stuck in a nursery forever only grows so strong. It is by being exposed to the cutting wind, the blistering sun, the pain of thirst occasionally that helps the plant become strong enough to survive. It was never easy for Christ, so as his representative in a way it means I will occasionally need to feel it not being easy too.
It is interesting to think about. This year I won't have a Christmas tree, I won't have my family around me, I won't have the normal homemade candies like caramel and reeses and the experience of waking up super early to see if Santa came. But this year, my Christmas tree is the tree of life. I am helping lead people to the fruit of the tree which is a fruit of which they can taste and never hunger anymore, which fruit is the love of God. I am pointing people toward the tree and bringing them to the iron rod. What a cool opportunity.
Anyway, I don't have too many stories this week. Hermana Mulliner is seriously so great! She is so patient and humble and willing to learn and to help out. We have an investigator who is so great. He is like a shocker to me and makes me want to go into more of a finding mode to find more people like him. See, typically with most of our investigators they love us coming and they like what we teach, but they won't come to church even after we commit them very solidly. But after the second lesson with Antonio, he committed to a baptism date and he went to church yesterday! It almost seems too easy with him. Maybe we'll have a few more lessons and we'll find his doubt or maybe he really is ready. I don't know, but it makes me excited to teach when I find people like him!
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I asked the Zone Leaders and they said gmail video chat is fine for the Christmas phone call. Also I was wondering if Sarah can get me Julie (previously Stringfield) Divett(?)'s address. I haven't heard from her and I'd love to write her a letter.
Anyway, I'd probably better head off soon! Have a fantastic week. I love you and you are so great!!
May the Spirit be with you!!
~Hermana Whetten
It's funny that I'm even mentioning any sweets because I've been good about not eating junk food in the house. But, you know, Christmas can be an exception haha. See, what I've been finding out is that it is so easy to gain weight on the mission. At times it kind of feels like you have no control on what you eat and thus no control on your weight. The ward is so good about providing us a dinner every night and they are usually pretty huge. But I realized a couple of things. I may not have that much control on what I eat for dinner (and I pretty much feel like I have to eat it all because I don't want to offend anyone), but I do have control over what I eat for breakfast and lunch. Like if you think about it, you're supposed to eat like 1200-1400 calories or something like that to maintain or lose some weight. So if a dinner feeds you automatically like 600-800 calories, then you just have to be careful to eat breakfast and lunch which is closer to 300-400 calories. Plus if you have good workouts every day, then you're set. We got a copy of the Insanity workout DVDs and so we are definitely working out really well haha! They are so intense but it is great. I definitely have a testimony that living the word of wisdom helps you be healthier and more receptive to the spirit. If you think about it, your spirit is able to be in charge instead of your body. Like the type of thing where you eat to live rather than live to eat.
Anyway, this was another busy week. We definitely saw miracles and every night we were so tired. Sometimes I feel quite a bit of stress, so I'm working on being able to manage that a bit better. It is hard that I'm now the one who knows the area really well, I know the people, and I want to be the very best I can be because I want this area to become better etc. I really push myself to working hard, planning a lot, speaking Spanish a lot. So it makes sense that I feel stress sometimes. But I'm working on that. And to be completely honest, I'd rather feel stressed out a bit and like exhausted when I get home every day than to be lazy. I don't want to live with a single regret of something I should have done better that I could have. Feeling some stress helps me know that I'm growing stronger. Like a plant stuck in a nursery forever only grows so strong. It is by being exposed to the cutting wind, the blistering sun, the pain of thirst occasionally that helps the plant become strong enough to survive. It was never easy for Christ, so as his representative in a way it means I will occasionally need to feel it not being easy too.
It is interesting to think about. This year I won't have a Christmas tree, I won't have my family around me, I won't have the normal homemade candies like caramel and reeses and the experience of waking up super early to see if Santa came. But this year, my Christmas tree is the tree of life. I am helping lead people to the fruit of the tree which is a fruit of which they can taste and never hunger anymore, which fruit is the love of God. I am pointing people toward the tree and bringing them to the iron rod. What a cool opportunity.
Anyway, I don't have too many stories this week. Hermana Mulliner is seriously so great! She is so patient and humble and willing to learn and to help out. We have an investigator who is so great. He is like a shocker to me and makes me want to go into more of a finding mode to find more people like him. See, typically with most of our investigators they love us coming and they like what we teach, but they won't come to church even after we commit them very solidly. But after the second lesson with Antonio, he committed to a baptism date and he went to church yesterday! It almost seems too easy with him. Maybe we'll have a few more lessons and we'll find his doubt or maybe he really is ready. I don't know, but it makes me excited to teach when I find people like him!
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I asked the Zone Leaders and they said gmail video chat is fine for the Christmas phone call. Also I was wondering if Sarah can get me Julie (previously Stringfield) Divett(?)'s address. I haven't heard from her and I'd love to write her a letter.
Anyway, I'd probably better head off soon! Have a fantastic week. I love you and you are so great!!
May the Spirit be with you!!
~Hermana Whetten
Tuesday December 4, 2012
How are you all?! It is always amazing to hear from you all! I hope you are having fun preparing for Christmas in a few more weeks!
Before I forget, I haven't had a chance to ask if Gchat is even approved for us to use for the Christmas call, but I'll try to this week. If I have to guess right now, I would say we're only allowed to use Skype just because there is that whole rule about only using approved websites.
Okay, first thing's first... So we went up to Santa Clarita and I picked up my new companion last Tuesday. Her name is Hermana Mulliner. She is super great. She is quite a bit shorter than me, but "fun size" does kind of apply to her. She is definitely fun. She is from Alpine, Utah. No, our ward mission leader's dream did not quite come true... He dreamed that she would be short, dark skinned, and long haired. Hermana Mulliner is short and has long hair, but she is definitely very white. She has been out one transfer longer than me...this is my 4th transfer and this is her 5th. We are getting along great because she has such great love for everyone, she is fun and funny, and she is not stressful to be around at all.
An interesting thing is I actually met her at the MTC. On Sundays we would go for walks around the Provo Temple and I met her on her last Sunday right outside the fountain in front of the Provo Temple. We were so excited to find someone going to the same mission because that was a little rare for us. But I am pretty sure I actually remember saying to her. "I wonder if we'll be companions someday." and here we are someday later haha.
It is interesting though... this is a case where the Lord's will was definitely greater than mine. At the last interview with the president, I had expressed how I really wanted to speak Spanish all the time. Because of that, I was sure he was going to put me with a nativa. But come the transfer and I ended up with a little white girl from Utah who speaks less Spanish than me (for instance, she was in the beginner's Spanish class at the MTC. She literally knew no Spanish coming onto the mission). In this case, the Lord definitely works in mysterious ways. Instead of giving me a companion who can easily speak Spanish at me, He gave me a companion who I can actually speak better than. But the thing is, both of us are committed to speaking Spanish more and more and because of that, we're speaking so much more Spanish than I did before. It's so great because we can help each other out if we learn something new or if we hear a mistake which we've already fixed in our own Spanish. I'm also having to take an extremely active role in the lessons whereas with a nativa I probably would have been using her as a crutch. For instance, with a nativa, when it gets difficult to explain something I can just give up and she can take over. But with someone who knows less than you, I have to figure out a way to express my thoughts and feelings. This transfer is going to be so great for the both of us!!!
It is a lot different not having Hna Hansen here. Well the work is the same, but now it is me having to plan everything and talk on the phone to everyone and set up appointments and meals, etc. Hermana Mulliner is perfectly capable, but since it is a new area to her, she doesn't know the investigators and members which makes it hard for her to add too many ideas at this point. Within a week or two she'll start being able to take a more active role little by little. But until then it'll be a little interesting for me. I'm not perfect at it all. In fact, let me tell you about a few of my mistakes from this week...
One was that on the highway back from Santa Clarita, I stayed in a right lane which I thought was safe, but I realized it was too far over. It ended up being an exit lane and there was too much traffic for me to get back over last second. So we ended up taking like a 5 mile or so detour to get back onto the freeway facing the right direction. Luckily Hermana Hansen is letting us borrow her GPS until I can get one (by the way, if it isn't too expensive can you get me one eventually now that I know I'm not on bike?) and so the GPS helped us get the right exit and then turn around spot etc so we could be heading back home. That was quite the adventure.
Another adventure was one night for the dinner appointment. On our calendar, Hermana Moreno wrote down her name and her phone number. So I had done well and called the day before to set up the time etc. But come the day of, I realized I wasn't actually sure which ones the Morenos were and I accidentally wrote down the address of the Morales' into my agenda. So we showed up to the Morales house and we ended up teaching her husband who is a nonmember and he became a new investigator. When we finally got out to the car we had to profusely apologize to the Moreno family and then come over for them. They were so patient and loving to me, luckily! That's one of those things where I like couldn't believe I did that, but luckily it ended up working out.
Another morning, I looked at my jacked and my name tag clip was there but my name tag was no where to be seen. So later that day we wandered our car over to the last appointment we had had the night before and lo and behold I found my nametag right there on the ground where we had parked the night before. I guess it somehow came undone while getting in or out of the car or while putting on my backpack or something like that. I'm not actually sure how. Sadly, it had been driven over and the clip was broken.
So I'll probably have to order a new one anyways. But at least we found it.
Another day we almost died. We were on a street at a stop sign going onto a street which didn't have any stop signs the two ways. So I was sitting there with my foot on the break looking right and left and waiting for the street to clear out because there were cars going both ways. So were just sitting there at the stop sign and the next thing I knew there was a car taking a left turn in front of us to get onto our street and they didn't see us I guess and took the turn wayyy too sharp. They were headed straight towards the front of our car and fast too. We were screaming and tensing up because it looked for sure like they were going to run straight into us. But then at the last second it looked almost like they hit an invisible shield around our car and it stopped. It was so crazy.
But that is kind of how this week has felt. It has just felt really bizarre and strange. Sometimes it feels like we're running around chickens with our heads cut off. If I ever had an annoyed thought at Hermana Hansen, I take it back, because now it is me being the one always ending up on the wrong section of the street (because streets here will have the same name north and south or east and west but between the blocks they won't actually be connected at all) and always having to make U-turns. Good thing perfection isn't required to be a missionary because I am definitely not that and this week I've felt quite a bit like an airhead instead. I guess what I've been realizing is that how you choose to look at a situation changes everything. You can choose to look to look at them like imperfections or you can choose to look at them like miracles. For instance, it could be a complete imperfection that we went to the wrong house for dinner. Or it could be a miracle that we turned that situation around and got a new investigator.
I think humans aren't meant to be depressed or stressed or anxious. Feeling depressed is worrying about the past, feeling stressed is putting too much worry on right now, and feeling anxious is worrying too much about the future. None of those are very optimal. And really, the solution to them is to develop attributes of Christ like Faith that the Lord has a plan for you, Hope that it will all be better in the end, Charity to add meaning to your life right now, etc. I think of Nephi's version of the story vs. Laman's. You can choose to look at every single situation like a trial. Or you can choose to look at it like an adventure. Being able to see the beginning for the end helps us to see how cool the trip could have been for them. For instance, they were the only native born people from Jerusalem who got to travel across a desert, build a boat, sail across the oceans, and end up in a great land with new mysterious plants and animals. What an adventure, right?! Looking at it that way, the trials they went through didn't seem so huge compared to how they ended up. I think that is how our lives can be. We can choose to look at the day to day trials. Or we can have faith that the Lord will bring you to someplace much bigger and better at the end, a place that he's promised for you, and then live every day like it's an adventure that's going to get you closer to your own promised land. Point of view really changes everything.
I still can't really believe it's December already. I do want to tell you about Alba's confirmation really quickly. It was so beautiful!!!! She was crying during taking the sacrament, crying during her confirmation, and crying here and there the rest of sacrament meeting. It was so beautiful! She is so great. On the way back from the stage or whatever it's called, she was holding the hand of her husband who was just able to bless her. That was the first time I think I've ever seen them hold hands. On the lesson on Saturday she said that they're going to start reading scriptures together... both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. In a year they're going to get sealed in the temple, I'm sure and I don't think she will ever fall away. I am so blessed to be able to see such beautiful changes in people like Alba. It makes me feel like the love I have for the people and this opportunity I have to serve really is changing and helping people. I love her!!!
About the huge 1/2 mission conference we had yesterday, Don R. Clarke is such a great person. He is so inspiring to listen to and he's helped broaden our vision so that we can see how many more things we're capable of. It takes a lot of hard work and smart work to get to it, but I definitely believe the mission president's vision of 1000 baptisms next year is absolutely possible. I'm ready to do my part completely. It's hard to pick something to share from it, because he talked about like everything it is to be a missionary. Basically, you either 100% have faith in God and are 100% committed to every covenant you've made and everything implied therein or you're not. You either have complete faith and love so that you will talk to everyone and ask everyone for referrals or you don't. You're either going to be 100% obedient to every mission rule (or commandment, rather) or you're not. You're either going to receive every blessing including a lot more success or not. It's when you decide to do everything all the way that the Lord will finally be able to bless you with everything he's promised you. I know that quote "Any excuse, no matter how valid, always weakens the character." That is what it is about. Every time you make an excuse rather than just obeying the mission rules or every time you decide to not talk to someone because they don't look like the easy kind of teaching material or anytime you give up on your goals rather than doing absolutely everything until the last minute to achieve them, it is building a dam between you and God. You are holding yourself back from being able to drink freely and abundantly. You are holding yourself back from revelation. You're showing him that you don't treasure every spiritual impression or every person that he's trying to put in our path. I believe that absolutely anything is possible with faith and then diligent work on our part. And thinking like that changes how you do things. It changes how you talk about the Joseph Smith story. It changes how you love the people. I really feel like my vision has been broadened. I will work changing things here and there until I can really become a missionary more worthy of all the prayers we receive every day and worthy of the title "a preach my gospel missionary."
So yeah, let's now go and do! Let's become better! I'm going to let this mission flow through me and change me into the better version of me! I am so lucky to be out here!!
May the Spirit be with you!!
~Hermana Whetten
Monday, November 26, 2012
Wow! What a week! I have officially been a missionary for more than 6 months now. I now have a baby niece. Thanksgiving was this week. We had a baptism this Sunday! What a great week!
I can't believe Mia is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy to read that and to see all the pictures in the e-mail. Thank you so much!!! Thanks for taking the time to type out the whole story, Sarah. I'm sorry it was so painful but I am so grateful that she is here and is healthy and Max loves her. He is smiling so huge in those photos!!! He is so big. I am so happy. Like I kind of started tearing up reading and seeing all of that. It's a little hard not being able to meet her for such a long time. Just keep sending me photos!
Brittany, have you thought about referring your friend Sierra to the missionaries? As long as her parents are okay with it, it could be really special for you two and it could unite your friendship even more. Like how cool would it be if you could have the missionaries come to the house and you get to help teach her with them. You could start being a missionary now and being a missionary is really fun!!
Doodle, I was so excited to hear that you want to go on a mission when you're bigger. It will be something that will forever bless your life! You are so great!!
Shaun, great work being a missionary and being able to see your boss be baptized! It sounds like it was such a great thing to be a part of!!!
Really quickly, as a reminder, Don R. Clarke of the 70 is coming to our mission next week and the zones in the San Fernando Valley are having a conference with him next Monday. Thus, my preparation day next week is Tuesday so don't freak out when you don't get an e-mail until then.
Thank you so much again for everything you sent! I am pretty sure all of it arrived and I love it all! I have never owned the flat boots like that before and I love walking around in them. They make me feel cool haha! I'm not a girly girl at all, so I never thought I'd say that. But you know... when you're having to wear skirts every day you have to do something crazy and fun and warm haha.
We had Thanksgiving with Alba and her husband. It was so nice!! Their oven stopped working for a little while at like noon. They just noticed it wasn't cooking so they had to restart the cooking etc. Thus, it got out late and we started the dinner late, but it was so good!! They had this banana cream pie too which was delicious. I was glad that we only had to eat one Thanksgiving meal because last minute our elders realized they forgot to tell us that Hermanita was expecting us. We were able to kindly get out of it luckily. But the next day we had to eat two thanksgiving leftover meals a few hours apart and we were so stuffed!!
The way transfers are currently is that we receive transfer calls Saturday night. They will tell you if you're going or staying and if you're going they tell you if you're going to be on car or bike. We have Sunday and a little bit of Monday to say goodbye. We have Monday to pack. Then on Tuesday we all go to a big transfer meeting in Santa Clarita and that is when we find out where we are going and who our new companion is. So on Saturday night we got the calls. I am staying (and obviously I'll still have the car... by the way, I don't know if I've ever told you, but we drive a 2012 Chevy Cruz. It is nice!). Hermana Hansen will be leaving the area and her next area will be another car area (we think president is trying to make it so eventually all the sisters will be on car but that is just a rumor right now and there still are sister bike areas).
It's crazy to hear that! I mean I knew it was going to happen, but I hate saying goodbye. I really have grown to love her. Of course she isn't perfect. I probably know of her weaknesses better than anyone else right now. But we have done so much good together. We have worked so hard. We have seen so many miracles. We have been together so long. We were so lucky to get that one extra transfer in together. We have been together nonstop for about 4 months. We have definitely become friends. We've grown into better people. I'm excited to get a new companion and to grow in more ways. It will be good. I'm excited to have a new friend and to see where she goes and write to her to see what other miracles she will see on her mission. It will be so good. She keeps telling herself that she can't cry about leaving until tonight. But I know she loves me so much. In moments in the car when we're just thinking she keeps breaking the silence and saying things like, "I have loved working with you." It is moments like that that are so dulce.
Our ward mission leader, Hermano de Leon, told us that he had a dream where I had a different companion and she was short and had dark skin and long brown hair. I'm excited to go to the transfer meeting tomorrow to see if his dream will be correct.
But I was really grateful that we got to end the three great transfers together with a beautiful baptism. Alba got baptized. Like I think I said last week, she rightfully could have been called an "eternigator." I think her husband has been going back to church for about 11 years and he's been trying to get the missionaries to teach his wife for about 10 years or more. At her baptism even in the talks, the people kept on saying things like "I never thought I'd see the day when Alba got baptized!" We weren't even sure if she would make it this Sunday. But she did stop drinking coffee completely. We had a beautiful lesson with her based on the Mormon message "You Know Enough" (http://www.lds.org/pages/
But the baptism was so beautiful. Hermana Hansen and I got to sing "Mas Cerca Dios de Ti" (Nearer My God to Thee) as a special musical number and it was so special. She was like quietly looking at the words and singing along. Her husband did the baptism. He has baptized several people before but I think it has been a while and he was a little nervous, so it took him 3 tries to get it right. I think the most beautiful part, though, was the closing hymn and the prayer. She started crying so much. It was so beautiful. We gave her hugs afterwards and she was like "I don't know why I'm crying so much." I know why. She also told us "thank you so much for everything!" She was so beautiful and happy and I was lucky to have been able to be an instrument in the Lord's hand and to have been able to play a small part in her conversion story. That is what this work is all about. It is about the one. It is so beautiful to see!!!
I'm sorry if this letter sounds a little bit scatter brained and the parts don't necessarily flow smoothly. Hope you don't mind too terribly haha!!
But have a great week! Enjoy every second of life!!
I love you and may the spirit be with you!!
~Hermana Whetten
Monday, November 19, 2012
First of all, before I forget, Hermana Hansen last week made us CDs of some music from the youth.lds.org website and there is one that I've fallen in love with and you should all check out! Here is the website: https://www.lds.org/youth/
I have one little request. Can you print me off another talk sometime? I believe it is called "Do Things That Make A Difference" by M. Russel Ballard. I believe it can be found in the Ensign from like 1983. Thanks in advance!
Oh, also before I forget. On December 3rd there will be a big conference thing that we're going to because a general authority or 70 or something like that is coming. So on that week, the preparation day will be Tuesday the 4th. So you don't have to worry when you don't get an e-mail on the 3rd haha!
Okay, now for some stuff about how this week was... so something very interesting...unique and weird I guess happened. Let me see if I can explain. I guess I can start by saying that I believe I received my first revelation through a dream this week. I've been really wanting to for a while because so many of the Hispanics talk about how they've seen amazing things in their dreams which were revelation and helped them become converted or things like that. And I know that is one way the spirit can testify to us. But that it is a gift in a way. Well I had one dream this week that I believe was revelation. It wasn't the answer I wanted necessarily, but it helped me accept what was best. Here is the story...
So Alba had her interview on Saturday. She is an intellectual so she feels like she needs to know everything completely before she is baptized. And she had a lot of doubts for a long time about prophets and the Joseph Smith story and things like that. Her husband is a member and on the high counsel right now and more than anything else in the world he wants her to be baptized. But for the longest time she wouldn't listen to missionaries. Some elders told the husband that they only needed one lesson with her and she would want to start on the road to baptism. Well they got their lesson and they asked her if they could come back and she was like "no thank you." So this has been basically how it has gone. But then Hermanas came into the ward and the husband asked the first few hermanas that came (they changed to hermanas in this area in January or February) she just clicked with them and let them keep coming back. Even in just the time that I've been here she has come very far. At first she only came to church sometimes and she would only stay for like 1 or 2 of the hours. Then slowly she worked up to coming for longer times and coming every week. Now she comes every Sunday for the full time. She took the sacrament for the first time about 3 weeks or so ago. She has been progressing so much! Maybe she doesn't see how far she's come, but when I first came, she could be labeled "eternigator" and then eventually we were able to set a baptismal date as November 18th and she was progressing so much. We set the date promising her that the Lord could help her before that time know that this is the truth. He has definitely been touching her heart. Her big doubts--The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, prophets, etc have been dissolving slowly and she has progressed so much.
She had her baptismal interview on Saturday and it took like an hour or so, but she came out and Elder Fullmore said that she passed and they left and we worked on planning her baptismal program. But a few hours later he called us and said that during the interview he felt great and that she was ready for baptism. But ever since he left he's felt uneasy and he's been praying and he felt like she should wait a week. Her big problem right now is coffee. She doesn't understand why we are asked not to drink it. She doesn't drink very much and it doesn't make sense to her why she has to give it up. I guess the way she sees it, it might be like if a prophet told us that apples are bad for us... she just can't understand why. But this past week she's been working on drinking less and less until she drank her last cup of coffee. But in the interview evidently she said that she had drunken coffee even the day before. So Elder Fullmore really just started to feel like it isn't the progress you've made, it is your acts that show that you're ready for baptism. She said that she won't drink coffee when she's baptized. But he was thinking it isn't right to drink coffee on Friday, not drink on Saturday and have the interview Saturday, then on Sunday get baptized, if that makes sense. So he asked to postpone for another week to make sure she is really committed to it by her acts this week. It was just a weird situation having her pass then taking it back.
But on Saturday morning I had a dream where Alba and Elder Fullmore got out of the interview and he said that she needs more time and in the dream I immediately knew it was because of the word of wisdom. So to me, having had that dream was revelation that that was the right thing to do even though we had to take it back. I could have argued for it more to tell him that we really do feel she is ready. But because of that dream, I accepted it even though it isn't what I would have chosen. It helped me accept what was best for her. And honestly, I know this is the best thing for her. Her husband was so disappointed and was like depressed on Sunday. But this will give her another week to make sure it is her decision and not just because her husband wants it so badly. And it will help her know that she is ready to live all the commandments and to prove to God that she will do His will even though she doesn't understand completely the why. It really is the best thing for her. It really was a weird situation, though!
Anyway... it is great to be seeing a lot of progress in many investigators. They are so great! I loved when we stopped by Herminia's house yesterday to give her a quick lesson and ask her why she didn't come to church and help recommit her for the coming week. She was working on making tamales and so we got to do a fun little impromptu act of service. She put the filling stuff in the husk stuff or whatever and then we tied them shut. It only took us like 20 or 30 minutes to finish it up (by like 6 or 7pm) and she said she would have been working on them by herself until probably like 9 or 10pm. I love being able to serve people! It is so great and it meant a lot to her.
"Maria" has really been progressing in everything this week. For instance, one day we came over and she was just glowing. It was so great to see! But she has been learning and understanding the importance of things like prayer and scripture study. She found a quote the other day and she said that it explains her situation perfectly and about how we found her and have really been helping her. She sees us as angels who have been helping her all along the way back. This is how the quote goes:
"It's not too late," the angel said. "Even though the world's a mess, even though you're not as young, even though you've made mistakes and have been afraid; it's not too late."
And then I saw the world through the angel's eyes. I saw the colors I could paint, the bridges I could build, the lives I could touch, the dreams that could still come true. And it became very clear to me. It's not too late.
~Ron Atchison Isn't that so beautiful! I love it!!! Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week! Enjoy Thanksgiving and everything! May the Spirit be with you!
~Hermana Whetten
I have one little request. Can you print me off another talk sometime? I believe it is called "Do Things That Make A Difference" by M. Russel Ballard. I believe it can be found in the Ensign from like 1983. Thanks in advance!
Oh, also before I forget. On December 3rd there will be a big conference thing that we're going to because a general authority or 70 or something like that is coming. So on that week, the preparation day will be Tuesday the 4th. So you don't have to worry when you don't get an e-mail on the 3rd haha!
Okay, now for some stuff about how this week was... so something very interesting...unique and weird I guess happened. Let me see if I can explain. I guess I can start by saying that I believe I received my first revelation through a dream this week. I've been really wanting to for a while because so many of the Hispanics talk about how they've seen amazing things in their dreams which were revelation and helped them become converted or things like that. And I know that is one way the spirit can testify to us. But that it is a gift in a way. Well I had one dream this week that I believe was revelation. It wasn't the answer I wanted necessarily, but it helped me accept what was best. Here is the story...
So Alba had her interview on Saturday. She is an intellectual so she feels like she needs to know everything completely before she is baptized. And she had a lot of doubts for a long time about prophets and the Joseph Smith story and things like that. Her husband is a member and on the high counsel right now and more than anything else in the world he wants her to be baptized. But for the longest time she wouldn't listen to missionaries. Some elders told the husband that they only needed one lesson with her and she would want to start on the road to baptism. Well they got their lesson and they asked her if they could come back and she was like "no thank you." So this has been basically how it has gone. But then Hermanas came into the ward and the husband asked the first few hermanas that came (they changed to hermanas in this area in January or February) she just clicked with them and let them keep coming back. Even in just the time that I've been here she has come very far. At first she only came to church sometimes and she would only stay for like 1 or 2 of the hours. Then slowly she worked up to coming for longer times and coming every week. Now she comes every Sunday for the full time. She took the sacrament for the first time about 3 weeks or so ago. She has been progressing so much! Maybe she doesn't see how far she's come, but when I first came, she could be labeled "eternigator" and then eventually we were able to set a baptismal date as November 18th and she was progressing so much. We set the date promising her that the Lord could help her before that time know that this is the truth. He has definitely been touching her heart. Her big doubts--The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, prophets, etc have been dissolving slowly and she has progressed so much.
She had her baptismal interview on Saturday and it took like an hour or so, but she came out and Elder Fullmore said that she passed and they left and we worked on planning her baptismal program. But a few hours later he called us and said that during the interview he felt great and that she was ready for baptism. But ever since he left he's felt uneasy and he's been praying and he felt like she should wait a week. Her big problem right now is coffee. She doesn't understand why we are asked not to drink it. She doesn't drink very much and it doesn't make sense to her why she has to give it up. I guess the way she sees it, it might be like if a prophet told us that apples are bad for us... she just can't understand why. But this past week she's been working on drinking less and less until she drank her last cup of coffee. But in the interview evidently she said that she had drunken coffee even the day before. So Elder Fullmore really just started to feel like it isn't the progress you've made, it is your acts that show that you're ready for baptism. She said that she won't drink coffee when she's baptized. But he was thinking it isn't right to drink coffee on Friday, not drink on Saturday and have the interview Saturday, then on Sunday get baptized, if that makes sense. So he asked to postpone for another week to make sure she is really committed to it by her acts this week. It was just a weird situation having her pass then taking it back.
But on Saturday morning I had a dream where Alba and Elder Fullmore got out of the interview and he said that she needs more time and in the dream I immediately knew it was because of the word of wisdom. So to me, having had that dream was revelation that that was the right thing to do even though we had to take it back. I could have argued for it more to tell him that we really do feel she is ready. But because of that dream, I accepted it even though it isn't what I would have chosen. It helped me accept what was best for her. And honestly, I know this is the best thing for her. Her husband was so disappointed and was like depressed on Sunday. But this will give her another week to make sure it is her decision and not just because her husband wants it so badly. And it will help her know that she is ready to live all the commandments and to prove to God that she will do His will even though she doesn't understand completely the why. It really is the best thing for her. It really was a weird situation, though!
Anyway... it is great to be seeing a lot of progress in many investigators. They are so great! I loved when we stopped by Herminia's house yesterday to give her a quick lesson and ask her why she didn't come to church and help recommit her for the coming week. She was working on making tamales and so we got to do a fun little impromptu act of service. She put the filling stuff in the husk stuff or whatever and then we tied them shut. It only took us like 20 or 30 minutes to finish it up (by like 6 or 7pm) and she said she would have been working on them by herself until probably like 9 or 10pm. I love being able to serve people! It is so great and it meant a lot to her.
"Maria" has really been progressing in everything this week. For instance, one day we came over and she was just glowing. It was so great to see! But she has been learning and understanding the importance of things like prayer and scripture study. She found a quote the other day and she said that it explains her situation perfectly and about how we found her and have really been helping her. She sees us as angels who have been helping her all along the way back. This is how the quote goes:
And then I saw the world through the angel's eyes. I saw the colors I could paint, the bridges I could build, the lives I could touch, the dreams that could still come true. And it became very clear to me. It's not too late.
~Ron Atchison
~Hermana Whetten
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