November 17, 2014- Stitches!!

Hello!

So much to tell about this week!  Well the first part of the week went so great!  We met this older lady who needed help cleaning out her shed.  She was a really tough negotiator and wanted to pay us for it.  We told her no she couldn't pay us but she finally settled on just cooking us lunch. (We can't turn that down)  After we helped her and ate lunch we were able to teach her and her daughter the restoration.  It was so awesome!  They are really excited to read the Book of Mormon.  That was a testimony builder for me on something I heard one of my Zone Leaders say a while back, Service Softens Stony Souls.  Service can turn a no into a yes!  It can help someone who wasn't interested in hearing our message before become more open.  

Well some other crazy things happened this week too.  On Thursday I fell right on the floor in our hallway and ended up getting a big cut on my head. (leave it up to me to do something like that right?)  Anyways that completely threw off our day.  I realized that I would probably need stitches.  Spending 4 hours in the ER waiting to get stitched up wasn't really what we had planned that day.  I'm doing good though!  I was out working like normal again after lunch!  

Well we also found a solid new investigator!  His name is Chris and he had been taught by missionaries not too long ago.  He had a baptismal date and everything but ended up backing out.  Well when we taught him this week he told us he wanted to finish the lessons.  We invited him to get baptized on December 6th and he said he would.  Man I am so pumped for him!  He is a really cool kid.  

Also Elder Flores is doing amazing!  He speaks Spanish and the other night he taught a lesson all in Spanish and did so great!  I didn't really understand what was going on but I could tell he had the spirit and that is all you need!  

Well thank you all for everything!  Love yall!

Elder Whetten

November 10, 2014- Hump Daaaay!

Dear Family and Friends,

Whats up?!  This week has been a good one!  There are a lot of exciting things going on in Hamilton right now.  First of all, I feel like I finally know how to get around town!  Even without the help of my trusty GPS.  I know that's pretty sad right since It's a super small town and I have been here for 2 months.  Oh well.  

So our investigators are so awesome!  Most of our progressing investigators are doing so well they just haven't accepted a baptism date yet.  One of them (James) has come to church the past 3 weeks and loves it!  Yesterday there was a member of the branch who asked him if he was there from the Stake.  It was so funny/cool. He has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and hopefully as we continue to meet with him he will take that next step to baptism!  

Donovan is another awesome guy we are teaching.  He was taught by missionaries here before but lost contact with them.  Well while we were emailing one week we started talking to this girl about the Book of Mormon and as we were talking he came up and started talking to us too!  He remembered a lot about the Book of Mormon and started to explain to this girl what it was.  It was really cool.  He wants to come to church really bad but works like every Sunday.  He is excited to come to the scripture class we have on Tuesday nights though.  

Those are the highlights of my week!  Oh and thank you for all of the "hump day" reminders....I guess. Haha time is going by too fast.  Where did the year go?  Anyways, I love you all!  Have a great week

November 3, 2014- New Companion & A Baptism!

Hey everyone!

How is everything going?  Things here are awesome.  We have had a pretty busy week with transfers and everything.  The beginning of the week was super sad with Mayfield and the sisters leaving but we had a ton of fun!  There are just so many awesome things going on in the area right now.  Like Elder Flores! He is my new companion and he is a champ! He is from Spanish Fork Utah.  He is excited to be out here and we have already been doing good work.  He really seems cool with trying anything whether it's street contacting, tracting, or whatever.  

I hope this week wasn't too overwhelming for him because we had a lot going on.  We had Brother Gann's baptism coming up but he wasn't feeling well at all so he couldn't meet with us until the day before.  It was stressing us out a little bit but on Sunday he was ready!  Although so much went wrong before the baptism (like the plug in the font not working right...bah!)  Everything worked out and Brother Gann was baptized!  I am so excited for him.  The Branch President is going to see about him getting the priesthood soon!  

So..Ya!  Pretty awesome week!  Love you all!

Elder Whetten

Pictures!!

These were pictures that my mom found floating around Facebook!

October 27, 2014- Training A Newbie!

Hey everybody!

Well it looks like the vacation is over.  We got some crazy news on our transfer calls Saturday night.  Elder Mayfield will be leaving, I will be staying and training a new missionary!  Plus we found out they are pulling the sisters out of our area.  It will be a challenge but I am so excited to meet this new missionary.  We will have a fun transfer especially because I'm still "directionaly challenged" (if that's even a word?) and still find it hard to find places here.  

I'm glad to still be serving here in Hamilton and I am super thankful that I served with such awesome missionaries here. (Seriously, Elder Mayfield is the man!)  This new missionary is coming to a great area because of the hard work others have put in to it.  

We are all set for Brother Ganns baptism this week.  He is pumped about it!  We just need to schedule an interview and he will be set.  We also have some golden people we are working with here.  We are teaching a guy named James and he is so solid!  He came to church yesterday and when we drove up to see if he was ready he was already outside waiting for us with his scriptures and a nice suit.  We were worried the Branch was going to think he was visiting from the high council or something haha.  

Well I hope yall have a great week!  I'm excited to get back to you on all the awesome stuff that will happen this week.

Elder Whetten

October 20, 2014- Miracles Happen When You Show Up Late!

Hello!

Best week ever!  Elder Mayfield and I have just been working hard and having fun here in Hamilton.  The coolest things happened this week.  Wednesday before District Meeting we were waiting for our Zone Leader and another Elder to show up so we could start.  We decided to mess with them a little bit for being late.  We all drove a little ways from the church in different directions so there would be no one there when they got there.  While we were waiting around the corner from the church the STLs wanted to do a little competition to see who could get a new investigator  before the other Elders show up.  We split up and ran to the nearest houses.  Nobody was home because this is like 12 30 on a Wednesday.  Well the other missionaries called us and said to come back to the church but we decided to knock on one more door.  Well someone finally answered!  A girl who was taking a sick day.  We were as bold and forward as we could be and shared a scripture with her from the Book of Mormon, then taught her about the Book of Mormon.  She agreed to pray with us and we set up a return appointment.  It was bomb!  The STLs even found a new investigator too, so the moral of the story is: When we show up late to District Meeting miracles happen!  Ha!  (Sarcasm)  Really though if we use all of the Lord's time doing his work he is going to bless us.

Also we have a baptism coming up!  Another guy named Gary haha.  He had a baptism date before but I guess right before I got to Hamilton he called and told Mayfield that he couldn't give up coffee and tea.  Yesterday at church he told us he had quit and he wanted to schedule his baptism.  I am so excited about life right now. Everything is going awesome!  Well I hope yall have a great week!  Thank you all for everything!

Elder Whetten

October 13, 2014- Grow A Polite Spine

Hey Everybody!

How are yall doing?  This was another one of those crazy weeks over here.  What even happened to this week anyway?  It went by too fast!  This week we started to count baptism invites on our key indicators.  Because of that our district leader trained on inviting or at least bringing up baptism at the first lesson.  Something I'm not the best at.  I'm super excited about this though because it will help me improve.  Right after District Meeting I went on an exchange with Elder Vance (he is the man!) and we really focused on inviting people to be baptized.  Well our first appointment was with a lady named April and when I asked her before the lesson what she hoped to gain from meeting with us she told us, "I am set in my ways and I'm never going to change but I love hearing anything about The Lord."  Not the best start haha.  The whole lesson didn't go at all like we hoped it would but by the end we finally invited her to baptism.  Well....she didn't accept but still wants us to come back and bring a Book of Mormon.  This taught me a lot.  It taught me that we don't have to be in that ideal situation in order to be bold.  All we can do as missionaries is try and make the most spiritual setting as we can but that doesn't always mean it will be spiritual.  It also gave me more confidence to just be bold all the time!  Or to "Grow a polite spine" as President Hanks says it.  

Another awesome thing this week was Stake Conference.  We drove to Tupelo Mississippi (birthplace of Elvis! hehe)  on Saturday night and it was an awesome session of Stake Conference! 

Those were some of the highlights of the week over here!  I hope yall had a great week!

Elder Whetten