The Tongan Experience

8-26-13

Mom, I'm surprised you actually let that lady in the house since you're such a worry wart-but that's a cool experience, though.  (We found a lady in our church parking lot who was going to be sleeping in her car and she had a mental illness.  We were going to let her stay overnight with us, but ended up contacting a transient bishop who put her up in a hotel for the night.  It was an interesting experience).  The Smith's experience at the Hill Cumorah Pageant is pretty cool.  It's interesting to see how the Lord puts people who are prepared to hear the gospel in our lives.  We ended up not having the baptism because the funeral was the same day and they were related somehow, so it got moved back to September 14th.  This week was interesting since that lady passed away.  All of our lessons for the week dropped since the majority of them were related to the Makasini clan-so lesson were super low.  At the same time, it turned out to be an alright week.  We did quite a bit of street contacting and found some potential investigators!  We also got in contact with some less actives.  Since it was a Tongan funeral, they had a BBQ every night this last week and it was super good!!!!!  They said they would go late into the night.It's so family members from all over could come over and bring things like money, food, and handmade Tongan mats.  It was pretty interesting.  They had the wake (viewing) on Friday night, but we didn't go.  The reason they call it the wake is because they stay up all night.  Then we went to the funeral Saturday morning.  It was good.  It was the first funeral I have been to and it was a Tongan funeral, so it was different I guess.  They focused a lot on the Plan of Salvation and missionary work, which was cool.  We skipped the burial since it was too far.  We did go to the lunch party afterwards and ate really good food!  (Shad always seems to bring up food!)  They mostly spoke in Tongan, so I didn't understand it, so we talked to Brother Makasini and he translated some of it, but then we talked with Bishop Fletcher and while talking to him, he asked what we were doing during Sacrament tomorrow.  We said, "Taking the Sacrament?...Bringing people?...Speaking?"  He was like Ya, you guys have revelation.  I just thought Oh Dang IT!!!  We only got the night before notice-great. We still had stuff to do that night.  So we briefly made our talks before church on Sunday, went to ward council, then spoke and surprisingly it went well.  He said those were some of the best talks he's heard and people came up afterwards and told us good job.  I'm not sure if people were just being nice or not-haha.  It went pretty well for preparing it a couple of hours earlier.  After church, one of the Makasini's daughter-in-laws came up and basically said she wanted to probably start taking the lessons.  The missionaries before tried to have her take them, but she said with the death of her sister-in-law, she felt sad and saw that those that were members had hope and a positive outlook about it and she wanted that, so hopefully, that will pan out.  Even though she passed away, it was kind of a blessin to soften some family members' hearts that we have been teaching!  On Thursday (sorry I'm jumping back) we had Zone Conference and that was pretty good.  President Watkins shared a good scripture for less active work in Luke 15.  That whole chapter is really good and I had never thought of it that way, but Zone Conference was great.  The missionaries from my last Zone were there, so it was cool to see them.  A lot of them asked me if I had gained weight-OH DANG IT!!!!!  It's only been about 3 weeks since I transferred.  Anyways, that was some of my week-it was pretty good.  It sounds like you had fun this last week.  Hopefully, all goes well with school starting and everything.  I know this is God's work and he He has prepared a way for all of us to share it one way or another!

Love ya,

Elder Whaley

Good/Bad Week

8-19-13

My new companion's name is Elder Dalton from Arizona.  He is not Tongan.  L. Taylor served a Tongan speaking mission?  Lucky!  I have learned a couple of words, but I don't know how to spell them.  It's interesting to learn about the Tongan culture.  They like to fight a lot-I know that.  I absolutely LOVE it here!  I got the package you sent-Thank you for that!  This week went pretty well until about Saturday.  We had quite a few lessons, got a baptismal date for hopefully this next Saturday, and visited quite a few people.  Last Saturday hit and it was a dead day.  All of our appointments cancelled because they were all from the Makasini family and their daughter had just passed away Friday from cancer and she had 5 or 6 kids with one on a mission in Tonga.  So, that was sad and made it so we had a difficult Saturday.  It seems like they're doing alright. They came to church on Sunday.  We are trying to see if we can help them out with anything.  Other than that, everything is going well here.  The ward is GREAT and the area is nice.  Hopefully, all is going well back home.  It sounds like you have had fun and good luck with school starting!

Love ya,
Elder Whaley

*I don't know anything about these pictures.  I'll have to try to get more info. from him.  I'm assuming the pics with the families may be families they've reactivated.  He mentioned that they have reactivated 5 families in his last area.

Headin' out for the day?

His apartment balcony?

"Some" of the stash that a member gave them.

Transferred to Redwood City

8-12-13

Well, I have moved to a new area.  The Redwood City 1st Ward in Redwood City.  Our address is 450 Redwood Ave. #20, Redwood City, CA 94061.  My companion is awesome!  (He didn't bother to give us a name.) He is 6'7", so taller than me, from Arizona and goes home next transfer, which kinda stinks!  This week was great.  All the people we visited this week were all Tongan except 1 family.  It's awesome!  (Shad really wanted to serve a mission in Tonga, so this is as close as he'll get).  I'm going to get fat because we get fed a lot.  We had 3 dinners the other night!  We are in a car 3 or 4 days out of the week and bikes the rest of the time.  The area is nice.  We cover Redwood City, part of East Palo Alto. and San Carlos.  This transfer should be good.  I'm excited!  We have quite a few people ready to be baptized!  I'm really liking the area!  Oh-before I left my last area, I got an electric guitar and amp at a flea market for $50, so now I have an electric acoustic guitar and a ukulele that I'm learning to play from my comp now!  He is really cool and I'm excited to serve with him.  We should be able to do some really good work in this area and he really wants to work hard and finish off strong before he goes home in September.  All the Tongans here are awesome.  They feed us so much here and they are really helpful.  All of them ask me what I am nationality wise or if I'm from New Zealand or they say that I look like Blake Griffin-haha.  This week was good.  We had quite a few lessons with investigators this week.  All of them are super cool, so hopefully this next transfer we will have some baptisms!  Other than that, nothing super exciting or super crazy has happened yet, but who knows, it's a mission.  I'm excited to serve in this ward-it seems really good so far!  It sounds like all is going well at home.  Hopefully, it continues to go well.  Love ya!

Elder Whaley

Playin' the guitar with his new companion?

Shad with ? family

Shad and Elder Carpenter with ? family.

Shad (in the cowboy hat and glasses) with some Elders

LOL!

Six month mark!

8-5-13

I am getting transferred, but you won't find out till next week since I won't find out until tomorrow.  If you could tell people to not send me things to my apartment, I would appreciate it.  Yesterday we basically went around to members' homes to say good-bye and we'll probably be doing that tonight.  I still have to pack.  Crazy!  It should be interesting to see where I end up.  I'm excited, even though I will really like the Moorepark ward!  It's time to move on.  It sounds like you have all been busy, which is good.  I don't think I've heard the talk about Lessons from Liberty Jail from Elder Holland.  You'll have to send it to me.  Well, nothing too exciting has happened, but this next week should be interesting.  I hope everything continues to go well.  Love ya!

Elder Whaley

Elder Whaley and Elder Vance with the ? family.

Elder Vance and Elder Whaley with the ? family.

Elder Vance with the ? family.

Elder Whaley and Elder Vance with the ? family.

Elder Vance, Bro. Paulsen (ward mission leader),
and Elder Whaley.

Some Crazy People out there!

7-29-13

Well, here are the answers to your questions-I have heard from some friends and it's always good to hear from them and see how they're doing-I love it!  Yes, I got the package from the mission office that she dropped off-Thank You!!!!!  Next transfers are Tuesday, August 6th, so if I move to a new area or get called to train, they will call Thursday night and I would have to go to a meeting on Friday-so that's coming up.  We'll see what happens.  That's good that you got that cleaning job and are getting the yard done.  Some things I really miss.....swimming, atv, country music, country dancing, hanging out with friends and family, doing things by myself, girls, boating, lots of STUFF!  We have an hour to email each week.  So here's my story for this week:

So, we contacted this guy who is homeless, is 21, and has every Word of Wisdom issue possible.  We have been talking with him and trying to help him cut back.  He called us up on Tuesday and we met with him at Applebee's with his friend and talked with him there.  Then, we left Applebee's and walked with him down to the mall, which was about a 2 mile walk.  We were walking with him and trying to help him out, then he went inside Kc on the way there to use the bathroom and came out with a joint, a homemade cigarette with weed in it, and starts smoking it and he got really high and somehow had a tablet (like an Ipad?) in his backpack and started listening to rap music and dancing and singing to it in his own little world.  It was pretty funny, actually.  Then, as we were walking to the mall with this guy who was high out of his mind, this lady on a pink cruzer  bike pulls up next to us and starts yelling at us about womens' rights and how her half brothers are trying to kill her and a bunch of other crazy stuff.  She was CRAZY-like a stereotypical crazy lady.  While we were listening to her about her whatever she was talking about, we look over and this guy, stoned out of his mind, is just rapping and dancing away in his own little world.  It was the most interesting thing-but super funny!  Then, she takes off on her bike and rides up a little ways and my companion and I just look at each other like, "What just happened?  or  Did that just happen?"  It was crazy funny!  So, we continue to walk with this guy to meet his daughter and girlfriend and that crazy lady waited for us and started going off again about who knows what and this guy is just telling her to shut up and cussing at her.  She just ignored him because she could tell he was on something, but she just kept going on and on about some interesting stuff.  It was pretty funny, then she finally took off again and we walked to the mall and met his girlfriend and daughter and talked to them and then went to our next appointment.  The End-haha.  Other than that, this week was pretty good.  We did a lot of service-laid some cement (that was pretty fun) and helped some people move.  We also went to a Polynesian FHE that was fun.  We played basketball with the kids and had a bbq-it was Super good!  Hopefully, all is going well for you all.  Love ya!

Elder Whaley

Bike problems!

7-22-13

Haha-that would have been priceless to see you working with the pigs.  I wish I could've seen that.  (I told him about an adventure I had with my neighbor and I trying to take care of her kids' fair pigs in the dark).  I think I'm ready to move on, even though I like this ward.  I think I'm ready to move onto the next chapter.  I like a lot of stuff about my mission-the crazy experiences, the people, the food (of course), and just being a missionary.  My least favorite part of my mission is bike problems, stupid people, or when people just don't get things or don't understand what you're telling them-it's just frustrating sometimes.  To help me with different areas of the gospel, I just study on the areas I want to learn about or ask my companion.  When things get hard, I just get over it, move on, find ways to improve, and just plow through it.  This last week was kinda stressful because we had quite a few bike problems.  I had to buy a new rim which cost $60, which stunk.  We spent quite a bit of time fixing bikes, but we did do a lot of service, which was fun.  We had about 14 hours of service!  I haven't gotten the package you sent with Sr. Tingey's sister yet, but I will on Tuesday I think.  The mission office called and said they had it.  Nothing too exciting happened this week, but it went alright.  I hope all is going well for ya back home and goes well this week, also.  Dad-that is a very cool experience in the temple and yes, I definitely believe there are certain people in our lives who make a big impact when others can't.  I'm thankful for the wonderful leaders I had and the life lessons I have learned from you and mom, even though I wasn't always receptive to some of them-haha.  Thank you for sharing that and I will try to remember back to those times.   Thank you for all you do for us!  Love ya!

Elder Whaley

P.S.  I forgive you for selling Penny (our Boxer) -I'm not sure if he really does or if he's trying to put a guilt trip on me.  :)

Samurai Shad

7-15-13

I got the package from Sr. Powell.  It was great!  I haven't had stamps, but I got some today, so I will send her something.  Everything is good.  We just had interviews with president and he said I will probably be transferred this next transfer and possibly be training.  He says a lot of stuff to people sometimes, so we'll actually see what happens this next transfer.  I'm sorry, I'm just not a very talkative, detailed person.  Haha.  (I keep telling him to give more details in his letters-we'll keep working on that!)  Landon (his friend) needs to put his mission papers in or he will have a harder time as time goes by.  Time has gone by pretty fast.  It's crazy that I've been out for almost 6 months-1/4 of my mission.  I love my mission and the people here are great!  Living with other elders is sometimes fun, except one of them is getting on everyone's nerves.  He is from Pennsylvania, so we'll see what happens to him in the apartment-hehe.  (Whatever that means)  That would be great if Josh got that little motor bike going.  Something interesting that happened this last week was that my companion has some Samurai swords and one of the other elders got it and was messing around with it and was swinging it around and sliced my thumb!  So, I just got some super glue and glued it back together and that was on Saturday night.  We just had dinner last night with the Bergh family and they have 4 girls and 1 boy.  They were everywhere bouncing off of us and the walls.  It was definitely not a boring dinner-haha.  They were so funny.  Hope all is going well at home.  Love Ya!

Love,
Elder Whaley

Shad's missionary tag and the bike plate we sent him!

The super-glued cut from the Samurai accident!

Elder Whaley happily biking along!

At the Apple headquarters (He loves Apple computers-
probably because of his Uncle Craig!)