Trunk or Treat-Idaho Style!

10-28-13

It's a Boy!!!!!!......

This week was pretty good.  It was a little slow since a lot of appointments canceled on us, so we didn't get as many lessons that we were planning on, but oh well, there is always next week.  We just had the ward Halloween Trunk or Treat.  It was pretty fun.  During the Trunk or Treat, I handed out 30 lbs. of potatoes that I bought and rode my bike with to the church with.....that was an adventure....but it was pretty funny.  The kids were like, "A Potatoe?!"  Some kids came back asking for one-haha.  It was pretty funny, but it was a good night.  Some members brought their neighbors and we were able to talk to some.  We'll see if they'll be interested at all.  For Halloween, we can't do anything besides do regular work, but we're going over to the Makasini's for dinner and do stuff with them.  The reason why I put it's a boy at the top is because I'll be a daddy....(training a new missionary) and I will pick him up from the Mission home on Halloween day.  That will be his first day in the field, so the next time I write you, I will have a greenie!  Oh man, it should be interesting, but he's getting born into an awesome area!  It's getting cold here, too.  It's like 55 degrees in the morning, then gets about 70 degrees.  Super cold huh?  haha.  I hope all goes well with the next doctor's visit the next time you go back down to Utah.  I'm glad you guys had fun while you were there!  Well, I hope all goes well for this week!  Love ya!

Elder Whaley
Ofa Atu

Elder Whaley (Cowboy Shad)
handing out 30lbs. of potatoes
at the church Trunk or Treat!

Loving the Area

10-21-13

Things are going great.  The lady who was in the baptismal suit was a woman that Elder Dalton and I taught, but found out she didn't live in our boundaries, so we gave her to the Stake Sisters.  We set up a baptismal date, then handed her over and the guy next to her is her son who baptized her.  Yes, I am loving life!  Especially this area!  I can't see myself leave this area and I know I'll be sad when I have to leave.  The work continues to go on.  The little girl in the picture, is the Makasini's granddaughter at a birthday party that they had for one of their grandson's, Kaianu.  It was pretty fun.  I'm excited for this week to go to the ward Halloween party.  It should be fun!  Man, it sounds like pretty good weather there for this time of year.  It's cold here since it's in the 70s (haha-JK):P  It's actually super nice weather.  I don't think I've worn a jacket since I've been out here.  This past week was good.  We had interviews with our president, that went pretty well.  We also played some volleyball and got up pretty early to go to Seminary, which was pretty fun-really good, too!  I made some cookies for Brother Makasini's birthday and supposedly their kids got some and now they want me to make some for them...dang it! haha  I'm glad everything is going well for ya back home and I hope it continues to go well!

Love ya,
Elder Whaley
ofa atu!

Crazy man at Wendy's

10-14-13

Ceipe,

There's a tongan sister there?  Cool!  There was an Elder Kaffi that served in my area-his name tag is still in our apartment.  I was upset that I missed Penny.  We were at the apartment having lunch and I ate my food super fast so I could take a power nap because I was super tired.  All of a sudden, my companion came in with a box and said, "This is from your mom."  I was like, what the heck?  He said a lady dropped it off.  I told him he should have woken me up-hello!  So yes, I got the stuff and the card-THANK YOU!!!!!!!!  There were cupcakes and peach rings and other candy-it was nice.  I wish I could have thanked her, though!  My companion is from Sugarland, Texas and he likes to run.  :/  He is probably going back to the Spanish program this next transfer, though.  The pictures I sent last time, were from touring the google campus.  Ohhhh-I have a story.  So this week we went to Wendy's to visit a less active, but we got there before him.  There was a homeless man in there asking us for money to buy food.  I had a free frosty coupon, so I gave it to him.  He just sat there and started talking to us about how his life stunk and he was really depressed and started crying.  Then, he started saying, "I'm going to kill myself....I'm going to go run into the road and get hit by a car."  He kept saying that and we told him he shouldn't, then all of the sudden, he gets up and runs outside of Wendy's to the road.  So my companion and I chased him down and stopped him from running into the road and made him sit down while the manager of Wendy's called the cops.  While we were waiting for the cops, he kept crying and saying, "I'm going to kill myself" and tried running to the street, but we just grabbed him and made him sit down.  Finally, after awhile, the cops showed up and took him away.  Quite the story huh?  This last week was good!  A lady and me and my last companion, Elder Dalton, taught, Sheila, got baptized, but we handed her over to the sister missionaries since she wasn't in our ward boundaries-but it was still cool!  Everything here is going good and the work is going great.  We had an investigator come to church for the first time and have another with a baptismal date, so things are going good!  The people here are awesome!  Sounds like you had a good week and hopefully it goes well for you this week, as well!

Love ya,
Elder Whaley
Ofa Atu

The lady that Shad and his past companion taught
that they handed over to the sister missionaries.

8 months out!

10-7-13

It's pretty crazy that it's been 8 months already.  Time flies so fast!  Everyone was making fun of me because I was asking who won the Aggie/BYU game so they found out that I was an Aggie fan-so I got crap....DANG IT!  Oh well.  The mission office called today saying that they have a package for me and they're going to mail it to me.  Thanks so much!  Conference was amazing!  We watched all the sessions and a lot of them were really good!  I really enjoyed it and I can't wait to read over the talks again to get more out of them!  Something I thought of during Conference was to challenge you all to pick one talk or your favorite talk and study it, pray about it (look it up), and try to live by the teachings of that talk or change to the principles of that talk to become better or more Christlike.  I know as you do, life will become better and you will have greater happiness.  Since it was Conference time, we got to go to the temple and talked to Elder Packer, the area seventy, and got to see the new video-finally!  It was really good.  It put things into perspective with the new video-there were things I hadn't thought of before!  This week was pretty good, kinda slow since we went up to the temple and watched Conference-but it still went pretty well.  Something funny that happened this week was: we were helping the sisters teach one of their investigators and at the end the man said to my companion that's from Texas, "I thought everything was bigger in Texas.  Did they make you leave?"  It was pretty funny, even though my companion didn't quite think so.  Well, I hope all is going well for you all back home!

Love ya,
Ofa Atu!
Elder Whaley

Temple trip during Conference
Elder Perez, Bro. Makasini, Elder Whaley

Elder Whaley's tag in front of the Oakland temple.

Handsome Elder Whaley

Elder Whaley and Elder ?

Elder Whaley with some Elders and Sisters in front of
the Oakland temple.

Elder Whaley with Elders and Sisters
in front of the Oakland temple.

Elder Perez (Shad's companion) and Elder Whaley
(trying to look cool?)

After a service project

Elder Whaley doing a service project?  (That's what he
said he was doing)  

Cowboy Elder Whaley caught himself some
dinosaur bones!

Google store (outside)

Google store

More google

....and more google

Inside the Google store.

Who knows?

Busy Week

9-30-13

Sorry I didn't email last week.  I didn't email anyone because my email didn't work for some reason.  It really stunk, so I just sat there and waited for my companion to email.  You finally got into your classroom.  Awesome!  Remember, even though everything is not there and totally ready, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass!  You asked me if I take Vitamins and the answer is "no"-ain't nobody got time for that!  LOL.  My new companion's name is Elder Perez from Houston, TX.  He's been out 13 months.  Some members said I need to get the "How to Learn Tongan" book by Brother Shumway.  It's a blue cover (Hint Hint).  This last couple of weeks have been good.  We have taught quite a few non-members and we're trying to take over a big area and not knowing where I'm going half of the time-haha.  We have someone with a baptismal date for Nov. 2nd, so we'll see how that one pans out-but it's still exciting!  Our recent convert's, Carla, mother just passed away.  We gave her a blessing in the hospital, but you can't go against the Lord's will.  Other than that, things are going well.  I'm still alive and well.  Hopefully, all is going well back home.

Love ya,
ofa atu (I'm guessing this is Tongan)
Elder Whaley