5-19-14
Mom,
I don't know if you sent an email or not, I'm guessing you did, but I didn't get it. (I did send one, but lately they don't always go through). This last week was pretty good. We didn't do so great on lessons, but Monday I went to Poly days with Elder Pekipaki since his comp didn't want to go. We went to Sunnyvale and met up with other Polynesians of the mission, which quite a few of them were ones I had served around in Menlo Park. We played volleyball, rugby, ate food, and listened to people play guitar and the uke. It was a lot of fun!!!!!!! On Tuesday, we had Zone Conference that lasted from about 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. It was long, but really good. They did a Q & A at the beginning so we could ask president and his counselors questions about almost anything. A lot of the questions were about the future like how to prepare for a spouse or family, how to balance family, work, and church, how to get a good eduction, what we should do about college, how to stay focused on the mission, and other questions like that. It was really good. I can't remember the answers, but I took notes. A lot of the advice was really good. We did that for about 2 hours I think. That was the best part. Then we heard from some of the senior missionaries about cars and housing, then had lunch. We then came back and listened to President Watkins and Sister Watkins speak. They are both awesome speakers! They always have really good talks! On Wednesday, we did service down in Gilroy handing out food to people who need it. Then, we did some more service after that. We then went around trying to visit people. After that, we went on splits with some members of the ward in the evening and visited some more people. On Saturday, we helped clean up one of the high school's here in town, Live Oak, and were there from about 8-12 and they fed us afterwards. That night we went to the adult session of Stake Conference and that was really good, as well. The missionaries had to sing in it. President and Sister Watkins spoke again and it was really good as always. They spoke along with the Stake President and his counselors. On Sunday, we had Stake Conference, which was very good. President and Sister Watkins came back and spoke again about love, faith, and missionary work. The rest of Sunday was alright. We went and tried visiting some people, but no one was home, so then we had dinner with the Faulk family and they made really good chicken! After that, we went and visited Mama Smith.....it's always fun to go over there-haha. That was basically my week. Hopefully, your week went well. I look forward to hearing from you! Just so you know, transfer calls are coming up Saturday, so we'll see what happens!
Love ya,
Ofa Atu,
Elder Whaley
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Sunday, May 18, 2014
15 Months in the Field!
5-5-14
Mon, time is going by so fast! It's crazy! It sounds like you had a pretty good week! That's good you fed the sister missionaries and had Brittney and her husband over! I'm glad to hear that you and Dad went to the temple. You should go more often, it will help out with things that are going on! I love going to the temple when we get to! Thanks for getting ahold of USU-I'll watch for an email from them. Chalmers is leaving.....NOOOOOOO-that really stinks!
This week was pretty good. Looking back, we had 20 lessons with 9 non-member and 8 less actives. It was pretty good, which was surprising since most of our appointments cancelled on us this week, which stunk at the time. But, it all worked out! On Monday, we visited Lola Rodriguez-a lady we had contacted the week previous. She invited us into her home and we taught a quick, simple restoration lesson since they were asking us a lot of questions-which was great! Then, we were about to leave and she invited us to stay and eat with them since it was her son-in-law's birthday. We didn't have dinner scheduled that night, so we stayed and the rest of the family tricked in through the evening and it was awesome. We got bombarded with questions, but they loved it and they said they wanted to come to church on Sunday and we hadn't even invited them yet! It was super cool and her daughter-in-law invited us over to dinner on Tuesday, but we couldn't make it to that, but it was awesome! They are a super cool family! Two days before Sunday, they texted and said something came up so they couldn't make it on Sunday, but they would call us when they were going to come, since they wanted to go. On Tuesday, we taught Douglas, and investigator, and that went well. We invited him to church and he said he would be there, then it ended up he couldn't make it, but he called us saying he was sorry he couldn't make it and that he'll try to make it next time. Wednesday, we did service at St. Joseph's, another church, handing out food to homeless people and people that need it. Then our splits cancelled with the Sweats and Stebbin's-two people we really needed to see! Thursday, we had dinner with a part-member that went well. We then caught a less-active at home who we haven't seen for a while, so that was good! Friday, we were doing weekly planning and a part member family called us up really needing us to do service for them, so we went over and helped them out. It was great! Later that night, we taught Brad Rentfrow and we have another appointment with him this week, so things are going well. Saturday morning we had a Bible bash with a guy at Starbucks that we had met 2 weeks ago. We'll see what happens. He wants to meet with us again. On Sunday, we had a great testimony meeting, but non of our people showed up, which stunk, but hopefully, they come next week. We had dinner with the Fisher's that night and they made 3 racks of ribs....I ate a side of a cow-haha! He was my first ward mission leader in my first area, it was pretty cool. We then picked up a new investigator and talked about the church and the church he just joined, so we're going to meet with him on Tuesday. So, in all, we had a pretty good week. Hopefully, we have mother! Hopefully, you guys do too! Love ya! Talk to ya soon!
Ofa Atu
Elder Whaley
Mon, time is going by so fast! It's crazy! It sounds like you had a pretty good week! That's good you fed the sister missionaries and had Brittney and her husband over! I'm glad to hear that you and Dad went to the temple. You should go more often, it will help out with things that are going on! I love going to the temple when we get to! Thanks for getting ahold of USU-I'll watch for an email from them. Chalmers is leaving.....NOOOOOOO-that really stinks!
This week was pretty good. Looking back, we had 20 lessons with 9 non-member and 8 less actives. It was pretty good, which was surprising since most of our appointments cancelled on us this week, which stunk at the time. But, it all worked out! On Monday, we visited Lola Rodriguez-a lady we had contacted the week previous. She invited us into her home and we taught a quick, simple restoration lesson since they were asking us a lot of questions-which was great! Then, we were about to leave and she invited us to stay and eat with them since it was her son-in-law's birthday. We didn't have dinner scheduled that night, so we stayed and the rest of the family tricked in through the evening and it was awesome. We got bombarded with questions, but they loved it and they said they wanted to come to church on Sunday and we hadn't even invited them yet! It was super cool and her daughter-in-law invited us over to dinner on Tuesday, but we couldn't make it to that, but it was awesome! They are a super cool family! Two days before Sunday, they texted and said something came up so they couldn't make it on Sunday, but they would call us when they were going to come, since they wanted to go. On Tuesday, we taught Douglas, and investigator, and that went well. We invited him to church and he said he would be there, then it ended up he couldn't make it, but he called us saying he was sorry he couldn't make it and that he'll try to make it next time. Wednesday, we did service at St. Joseph's, another church, handing out food to homeless people and people that need it. Then our splits cancelled with the Sweats and Stebbin's-two people we really needed to see! Thursday, we had dinner with a part-member that went well. We then caught a less-active at home who we haven't seen for a while, so that was good! Friday, we were doing weekly planning and a part member family called us up really needing us to do service for them, so we went over and helped them out. It was great! Later that night, we taught Brad Rentfrow and we have another appointment with him this week, so things are going well. Saturday morning we had a Bible bash with a guy at Starbucks that we had met 2 weeks ago. We'll see what happens. He wants to meet with us again. On Sunday, we had a great testimony meeting, but non of our people showed up, which stunk, but hopefully, they come next week. We had dinner with the Fisher's that night and they made 3 racks of ribs....I ate a side of a cow-haha! He was my first ward mission leader in my first area, it was pretty cool. We then picked up a new investigator and talked about the church and the church he just joined, so we're going to meet with him on Tuesday. So, in all, we had a pretty good week. Hopefully, we have mother! Hopefully, you guys do too! Love ya! Talk to ya soon!
Ofa Atu
Elder Whaley
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| Elder Shad Whaley just hanging out! |
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| Studly Elder Whaley |
Sunday, May 4, 2014
The Week's Rundown
4-28-14
Ahhhhhh mom, why do you remind me of how long I've been out? I don't want to know-haha! It's going by way too fast! Man, Austin's been out 10 months-that's crazy! Well, I'm glad you were able to visit with Uncle Craig-that's always good. Mom, you sang in Sacrament-that's great!
Well, this week was awesome! We had 22 lessons and 10 of those were non-members. A couple of them we're going back this next week for a return appointment and we did 13 hours of service! I am freakin' tired though! That's a good sign I guess, but no fun to be tired! There were so many things going on, but it was awesome! We had 6 lessons on Friday and most of them were non-members! On Monday, I mentioned that we were able to go to Monterey, which was cool. We didn't get to go to the beach, which was disappointing, but it was really pretty. We drove up by Big Sir and Fifer beach and over by Carmel and over by Monterey Warf/boardwalk. I wish we just had more time! On Tuesday, it was a pretty slow day for the most part. We taught a guy named Douglas and he was doing pretty good. He played a couple of songs he made on his guitar, then we had a little time right before dinner, so we drove to the top of our area, up by Henry Cove park and that was pretty cool. Then, we had dinner with the Howards, which is a super cool family. Their boys are going to BYUI and their son Taylor is in the same mission as Thomas M. and Sister Howard thinks she has heard Thomas' name mentioned once. Supposedly, Thomas took her son's spot in an area. On Wednesday, we got stuck in Gilroy with the other Elders since they wanted to carpool. They had to take their car in to get the oil changed and it took a couple of hours, so that kinda stunk since we had things we needed to do. We had splits that night and were able to make up the things we had to cancel. We taught the Sweat's and Ariel Falcon and his family-so it was good! On Thursday, we were on exchanges and I went to another area for the day -that wasn't too exciting. Friday was busy. We did 2 service projects helping some nonmembers and taught them while doing it, then we taught some people we ran into. We were trying to find people through the records, and we contacted a refferal that we are going to start teaching the lessons to-hopefully. His name is Brad and he seemed pretty interested, especially about the Book of Mormon. We then had dinner with the Deakin's, great family! After that, we went and dropped by a part member family and that went alright. On Saturday, the ward had their yearly service project and we cleaned the Morgan Hill Cemetery. That was pretty fun. We did that for about 4 hours, then we did our weekly planning and then went contacting and talked to a lot of people in downtown Morgan Hill since they had a "wine stroll' down there. We talked to some drunk people and that was pretty interesting! After that, we went to dinner and had some super good taco salad with the Green's and a sister missionary made me some Otai that I drank a big pitcher in 2 hours-it was so good!!!! After that, we went and visited Mama Smith and she always is a hoot. On Sunday, church was good, we had a lot of meeting. That basically was our week. Hopefully, we have another great one and hopefully, your week goes better! Hang in there! Love ya!
Elder Whaley
*P.S. I love the CD!!! My comp doesn't like it because I listen to it a lot! :) Oh well!
Ahhhhhh mom, why do you remind me of how long I've been out? I don't want to know-haha! It's going by way too fast! Man, Austin's been out 10 months-that's crazy! Well, I'm glad you were able to visit with Uncle Craig-that's always good. Mom, you sang in Sacrament-that's great!
Well, this week was awesome! We had 22 lessons and 10 of those were non-members. A couple of them we're going back this next week for a return appointment and we did 13 hours of service! I am freakin' tired though! That's a good sign I guess, but no fun to be tired! There were so many things going on, but it was awesome! We had 6 lessons on Friday and most of them were non-members! On Monday, I mentioned that we were able to go to Monterey, which was cool. We didn't get to go to the beach, which was disappointing, but it was really pretty. We drove up by Big Sir and Fifer beach and over by Carmel and over by Monterey Warf/boardwalk. I wish we just had more time! On Tuesday, it was a pretty slow day for the most part. We taught a guy named Douglas and he was doing pretty good. He played a couple of songs he made on his guitar, then we had a little time right before dinner, so we drove to the top of our area, up by Henry Cove park and that was pretty cool. Then, we had dinner with the Howards, which is a super cool family. Their boys are going to BYUI and their son Taylor is in the same mission as Thomas M. and Sister Howard thinks she has heard Thomas' name mentioned once. Supposedly, Thomas took her son's spot in an area. On Wednesday, we got stuck in Gilroy with the other Elders since they wanted to carpool. They had to take their car in to get the oil changed and it took a couple of hours, so that kinda stunk since we had things we needed to do. We had splits that night and were able to make up the things we had to cancel. We taught the Sweat's and Ariel Falcon and his family-so it was good! On Thursday, we were on exchanges and I went to another area for the day -that wasn't too exciting. Friday was busy. We did 2 service projects helping some nonmembers and taught them while doing it, then we taught some people we ran into. We were trying to find people through the records, and we contacted a refferal that we are going to start teaching the lessons to-hopefully. His name is Brad and he seemed pretty interested, especially about the Book of Mormon. We then had dinner with the Deakin's, great family! After that, we went and dropped by a part member family and that went alright. On Saturday, the ward had their yearly service project and we cleaned the Morgan Hill Cemetery. That was pretty fun. We did that for about 4 hours, then we did our weekly planning and then went contacting and talked to a lot of people in downtown Morgan Hill since they had a "wine stroll' down there. We talked to some drunk people and that was pretty interesting! After that, we went to dinner and had some super good taco salad with the Green's and a sister missionary made me some Otai that I drank a big pitcher in 2 hours-it was so good!!!! After that, we went and visited Mama Smith and she always is a hoot. On Sunday, church was good, we had a lot of meeting. That basically was our week. Hopefully, we have another great one and hopefully, your week goes better! Hang in there! Love ya!
Elder Whaley
*P.S. I love the CD!!! My comp doesn't like it because I listen to it a lot! :) Oh well!
Easter and Monterey
4-21-14
Happy Easter! Thank you so much for the package! I LOVED it!!!! It sounds like you had a good sacrament! That's really cool that Brian go to bless his son. Good for him. At the same time though, it's really weird that he has a child. I'm glad to hear that Jordan is going back out on his mission and is making a great recovery from his accident. You had asked about how much service we are suppose to do in the mission field. They would like us to get 5 acts for 10 hours in a week. We talked with Mama Smith yesterday and she told us she talked to you. It was pretty funny. Next time you talk to her, ask her about her dream about me since she won't tell me! Basically, from the past things, she's told us she is pretty much psychic. She slipped and started saying something and stopped midway of what she was saying. Now I want to know!!!!! Well, nothing new or spectacular this week. The week was slow and we didn't have that many lessons or non-members to teach, but we did get our car back, so that's good. Hopefully, we'll get back up to where we were before! We just got back from Monterrey. It was pretty cool. We basically just drove around and took some pictures. We didn't really get out and play on the beach though, so that was a bummer! Hopefully, next time. Dad, that book you mentioned, The Power of Everyday Missionaries, is very good. There were a couple of members reading it in my first area and they really liked it! It is good to teach the members how to approach people about the gospel. Sometimes, I am so focused on less actives and non members, that I forget about helping the members know how to share the gospel. Thanks for the reminder. Hopefully, all is going well back home and it's always good hearing from you!
Love,
Elder Whaley
Happy Easter! Thank you so much for the package! I LOVED it!!!! It sounds like you had a good sacrament! That's really cool that Brian go to bless his son. Good for him. At the same time though, it's really weird that he has a child. I'm glad to hear that Jordan is going back out on his mission and is making a great recovery from his accident. You had asked about how much service we are suppose to do in the mission field. They would like us to get 5 acts for 10 hours in a week. We talked with Mama Smith yesterday and she told us she talked to you. It was pretty funny. Next time you talk to her, ask her about her dream about me since she won't tell me! Basically, from the past things, she's told us she is pretty much psychic. She slipped and started saying something and stopped midway of what she was saying. Now I want to know!!!!! Well, nothing new or spectacular this week. The week was slow and we didn't have that many lessons or non-members to teach, but we did get our car back, so that's good. Hopefully, we'll get back up to where we were before! We just got back from Monterrey. It was pretty cool. We basically just drove around and took some pictures. We didn't really get out and play on the beach though, so that was a bummer! Hopefully, next time. Dad, that book you mentioned, The Power of Everyday Missionaries, is very good. There were a couple of members reading it in my first area and they really liked it! It is good to teach the members how to approach people about the gospel. Sometimes, I am so focused on less actives and non members, that I forget about helping the members know how to share the gospel. Thanks for the reminder. Hopefully, all is going well back home and it's always good hearing from you!
Love,
Elder Whaley
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| Monterey |
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| Elder Shad Whaley's tag and Monterey |
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| Monterey |
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| Elder Whaley in Monterey |
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