News From The Mission President!

Momma Whetten got an email from A.J's mission president! With Pictures!

Elder Whetten has safely arrived in the Alabama Birmingham Mission!

We are impressed with your son and want to thank you for all that you have done in preparing this wonderful young man for his mission.  He met his new companion and traveled to his first area.

Attached are photos of Elder Whetten, one with President and Sister Hanks and one with his Trainer, Elder Christensen.  He will bless this mission greatly with his enthusiasm and dedication. We love him and pledge our best efforts in directing his service here.

Elder Whetten has accepted a call that will change his life and the lives of those with whom he is serving.  These first few months will be full of new and challenging experiences, and your support in the form of encouraging and uplifting letters will help him greatly.

Our greatest hope is that each missionary has a positive and growing experience, which will help give him a foundation for a lifetime of service to others. We appreciate the time you have spent raising your son to be such a responsible young man.  We thank you for your willingness to share Elder Whetten with us.

President and Sister Hanks

T.R.C's, "Knowing", District Love, And The Like...

My parents were holding out on all of us! This letter came in the mail yesterday (Tuesday).

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for all the emails! I miss all of you so much! Wednesday was my only P-day (so my only chance to email while in the MTC) so I just wanted to catch you up on my T.R.C investigator. Her name is Sarah and our first visit with her went horrible! The second was amazing! That really boosted my companions spirits. The only problem with the second visit is it kind of put me down a little. My companion is a convert to the church and was baptized a year and a half ago. I really admire how much he has grown in the gospel since then. Anyways, she loves listening to him because he has really know what it is like in other churches. She did, however, say that she doesn't like when missionaries who are born in the church bear their testimony that "they know" the church is true. She wonders how they can know that when they haven't ever experienced anything else. Next time she brings it up I just need to say that although I was born in the church and have only been a member of this church I still have gone through my own conversion process. I have had my trials in my life and have had to learn for myself that "I know" this church is true.

Other than that I really love our visits with Sarah. She is awesome! Even though she seems more interested in learning about the church instead of joining it I really think she has felt the spirit even a little.

Well that's the biggest thing that I have to catch you up on, other than: I LOVE MY DISTRICT!

Love you all and miss you!

Love,
Elder Whetten

Training, Organized Companions, Investigators, Etc...

A.J. is alive and well at the MTC! Here is his first mass email!

Dear Family,

I miss all of you so much!  So here is kind of has been going on with me:  Day one was not the best... I felt really homesick and I was so busy.  I started to think that I wasn't going to be able to do this for a whole 2 years.  Everything has changed since then.  My Branch President took me into a room to get to know me and see how things are going.  I told him I was homesick and he told me not to worry about that.  He read me a scripture in D&C that said that not only will you receive blessings from being on a mission, but your family will receive blessings from my going on a mission.  That made me feel a lot better. 

My district has made this entire experience awesome!  We have really grown close and have encouraged each other when we are feeling down.  We are the best district here!  My companions name is Elder Mitchell.  He is in the National Guard so it is really nice to have a nice organized companion haha he keeps me in check.  But he is awesome!  We have two investigators here.  One of them is just one of our teachers playing a friend that they have.  The other is called a TRC investigator.  We don't know if the TRC is a recent convert just playing a role or an actuall person looking in to the church.  Our first visit with our TRC went horrible!  We mentioned some goals that we had like what we wanted to teach her and we just mentioned baptism.... she snapped at us and told us she was offended that we brought it up so soon.  After that the spirit just was not there at all.  We were really depressed that night and for most of the next day.  My companion took it really hard and was ready to go home.  I prayed for him and was trying to think of ways to build him up.  My prayer was answered because he got some great advice from our teachers and branch president. When we met with Sarah (Our investigator) again, we just talked to her and asked her what she wanted to accomplish while meeting with us.  We had a really nice discussion and we were able to answer a lot of questions she had about the church.  It went so well and it really made my companion and I feel awesome again. 

I am so happy here and hope that y'all are doing awesome!  There is so much left to say about my mission so far but I am running out of time.  I love all of you and miss you but I am so grateful to be here and don't want to be anywhere else!

Elder Whetten