Warm Christmas Season!

12-16-13

Ya, the weeks are going by fast.  This week was slow for us since people have events going on and are traveling for the holidays.  We had a lot of cancellations this week, but hopefully, it picks back up.  We did a lot of service this last week.  We did about 14 hours and that's as much as pesident wants us to do in a week, even though we could have done more.  Man, I love doing service.  It's so much fun!  Yesterday, Semisi didn't come to church, so we have to cancel his baptism this Saturday!  Ahhhhhh-frustrating sometimes!  That just means we will just have to ask for more help from Heavenly Father and work harder!  That is all he has to do, is come to church one more time and get interviewed!  Soooo close!  The other investigators we are working with right now are S. Fakapalea, R. Flax, J. Menchaca, W. Pupunu, and F. Thompson.....good luck saying those names-haha!  Hopefully, we can touch people's hearts during this Christmas season!  Even though it doesn't feel like Christmas at all!  It's too warm and there's no snow.  We don't hear a lot of Christmas music either, but that's the only thing that reminds me that it's Christmas, is hearing Christmas music every once in awhile.  Hopefully, this week goes well and we have some success!  It sounds like things are going good back home.  Good thing that the carbon monoxide detector was just outdated and not an actual leak!  It sounds like things are just going out left and right at home!  Hopefully, the heater continues to work by the time I get home because I will probably be freezing!  It's good to hear that Grandma is making progress!  That's cool that Brittney's fiance said he could feel the spirit in the house.  It's probably because I'm not there buggin' the girls-haha!  Wow, Kent has already been home a year and a half!  Time goes by so fast!  I can't believe I'm coming close to my year mark!  There are less actives that we work with sometimes that have served a mission and come home and totally go the opposite way and a lot of them you just have to talk bold with to get them to understand!  They just need a strong hand to guide them back!  You talked with Brother Morris?  How is he doing?  He is awesome!  I loved going camping with him!  Good times, good times!  Tell him I say hi!  So about the Creche, it was super cool.  They took all the missionaries that helped set up on a tour of it.  It was pretty neat, but I took about two pictures and a lady came over and got mad at me and told us we couldn't take pictures!  It was dumb.  She told me to delete them, but I still have them.  I forgot to bring that memory card-oops.  :/  Well, I hope you guys have a great week and enjoy all the fun stuff going on!  Love ya!

Ofa Atu
Elder Whaley

A well lit house!

Lots of ornaments!

Part of the live nativity (Creche).

More of the live nativity.

Elder Whaley helped bring in some
live animals for the Creche.
His new pal-Mr. Camel.

Plugging along!

12-10-13

So, the library's computers were down yesterday....of course it had to be a Monday!  It seems like you guys always get out of school because of power problems--haha!  Ya, it's cold here, too-the 40-60s.  Brrrrr!  :)  That's crazy that it's that cold there-Dang!  I can't even imagine that while the sun is hitting my face!  So Corbin had his farewell already, that's crazy....Japan, man that's pretty cool!  I got the package from Wayfair and it's sitting in the closet out of sight-haha.  Semisi is doing well.  His baptismal date was moved to the 21st because he missed church a week ago, but hopefully he makes it this next Sunday as well!  Other than that, we are just working with him preparing for the 21st now!  I'm not sure how the calling for Christmas works.  I haven't heard anything yet, but we'll probably just have a member call you or something.  This last week was decent.  It definitely picked up from Thanksgiving, but slow somedays.  We did a lot of service this last week- about 12 hours-which is always fun from picking weeds, to painting a living room, sorting cans at a food bank, and setting up a Christmas Creche.  The week was still good I think.  This week will hopefully be good as well!  We have the Christmas Creche going on along with the ward Christmas party this Saturday!  It's looking like a good week!  Hopefully, all is going well with you guys and you tty to keep warm!  :)  Love ya!

Ofa Atu
Elder Whaley
2 Timothy 1:12

Shad's Heaven (lots of food and a football game)

12-3-13

Thanksgiving was awesome!  We went to the Makasini's and ate TONS of food!  There was a hecka a lot of food on the table...you know you've eaten a lot when you're still full the next morning!  Man-I was stuffed!  Elder Jones tried to out eat me and he can eat quite a bit, but I won!  After we ate, they brought out the ukelele and guitars and started singing and playing in one room and I love hearing Polys sing.  They have such good/unique singing voices!  It sounds awesome!  Then, in the other room, the younger grandkids were singing karaoke-it was pretty funny to listen to them.  I haven't even heard most of the songs they were singing!  It was fun and we had a great Thanksgiving dinner.  Afterwards, we went to the Stake Center with all the missionaries and built a fire, had s'mores, and had a testimony type meeting.  It was pretty cool!  Traffic was horrible Thursday night and Friday and there was a lot of people everywhere!  (Black Thursday/Friday)  Uncle Craig is the ward mission leader?!  That's awesome!  This last week was interesting and a little rough.  Everyone was busy Thursday and Friday so it was hard to find things to do those days.  Then, on Sunday, Semisi didn't come to church and he's suppose to get baptized the 14th, but he has to come at least 2 weeks of church!  Ahhhh!  But, hopefully, this week goes better!  We got permission to go to a Standford game on Saturday, so we had to use our P-day on Saturday if we wanted to go, so we went on Saturday with some members.  We tailgated before, had pheasant sausage and burgers, and watched Notre Dame vs. Stanford.  It was super SWEET!  It was a good game!  So much fun!  Totally worth it!  (I'm sure Shad was in heaven watching a football game!)  Yesterday and today, we have been setting up a Creche display that they do here.  It's basically a nativity set in French, but there are 350+ of them in the whole church through the weekend and there are performances each night.  The nativity sets and pictures are from different parts of the world.  It's a lot of work, but should be really neat!  They have been doing it for 26 years, I think, and they fill up the whole church, so the wards that go there have to go to a different building for the weekend!  It's pretty big, so we have been busy with that.  Dad- that's great that you taught!  I'm sure you did great!  Yes, prayer is definitely a vital part of the gospel!  If there was not prayer, there would be no First Vision, no prophets, no restoration, missionary work, temples, and so on!  I am so thankful for that ability to communicate to Heavenly Father because I definitely need it out here!   Things are going well!  Hopefully, things go well for you this week, as well!

Love ya,
Ofa Atu,
Elder Whaley

Thanksgiving at the Makasini's

All the food!

Tailgate party before the football game.

Tailgate party.

Elder Whaley and Elder Jones at the Stanford football game!

Stanford vs. Notre Dame

The game!