Great Week!

1-13-14

Mom,

I got the birthday package!  Thank you so much!  Things are going good and the work is picking back up from the holidays.  We worked hard this week to try to get it back up and passed quite a few of our goals and got over 20 lessons, which is awesome!!!  Semisi is getting baptized Wednesday at 5- FINALLY!!!!!  It's been like pullin' teeth and trying to catch him over the past 6 months, but finally everything is set for Wednesday!  WAHOO!!  We are working with the same people that I told you on christmas and we were able to meet up with most of them this last week, so that was good!  We're hoping to have another great week!  This morning was pretty fun.  We got up and went hiking and went off the beaten trail for a couple of hours, got to be in the forested area for awhile, and got scratched up and all that fun stuff -since we are always in the city!  Hopefully, non of us get poison ivy or oak since it's up there!  But, it was fun!  I'm excited to enjoy the rest of my P-day!  This last week, I went on exchanges with our district leader's companion in their area!  It was a lot of fun.  Elder Strauss (from Virginia) went and did service up in the Los Altos hills pulling weeds, then later that night we were contacting on University, which is like a little strip mall.  We ate at Cheesecake Factory and after that, when we were contacting, we got offered dinner by 3 other members and then one of them bought us ice cream.  It was a pretty fun day!  So, this week has definitely been good.  I'm worried because transfers are next Tuesday and I've been here for 4 transfers now and so I might be getting moved but I reeeeeaaaaallllyyyy don't want to leave this area!!!!!!!  If I do, it will stink and I'll be really mad!!!  We'll see what happens!! But, other than that, we had a really good week!  Hopefully, you guys have a great week, too!  It sounds like the new ward theme is awesome!  Hopefully, all goes well for you all this week!  Love ya!

OFA ATU
Elder Whaley

Birthday countdown from family!
Birthday present from the Powell's.

Elder Whaley

Elder Whaley

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11 months out!!!!!

1-6-13

What?  Today is 11 months out?  I didn't even realize that!!!!  It's gone by way too fast!!   DANG!!!  My nose is alright I think.  The black eye has gone away and is tender still and it looks straight.  When I got hit, there was a bump, but I set it back supposedly, but it looks straight.  :/  It sounds like a lot of things happened over Christmas break.  Our ward switched to 9:30 and a lot of people showed up late.  It looked pretty empty right before we started, but it gradually filled up as the meeting kept going on.  This last week was alright.  It was still slow because of the holidays, so I'm glad they're over so we can hopefully get the momentum going again and teach people!  I got sick of people being out of town and not being able to meet because of the holidays!  Hopefully, this week goes a lot better.  Nothing new or exciting except we found out that president Watkins and his wife are going to be going around inspecting apartments thoroughly, interviewing us, and other things the next few weeks.  We need to clean-haha.  We'll see how that goes!  Hopefully, all is going well at home.  Love ya guys.  Have a great week!

Ofa Atu
Elder Whaley

12-30-13

It was good to talk to you on Christmas.  I forgot all the questions I was going to ask, sorry.  How did you get all the pictures of the people for the Christmas message?  That was probably my FAVORITE thing!!!!  It was awesome!  I still need to take a pic of it still.  This week was super slow with Christmas.  We were really low on lessons, but we did a lot of street contacting and found 2 potential investigators, so we'll see how they pan out.  Even though it was slow, it was lots of fun this week.  right after I talked with you guys, later that night we went to the church for a Zone gift exchange and while we were waiting for people, we played basketball and it got pretty intense...and now I have a black eye!  Wahoo!...an elbow to the face always feels good!  Hopefully, my nose is ok as well.  haha
Oh, the joys of mission life!  But, it's all good.  Yesterday was good.  Elder Dalton came back and visited, so I got to see him with his little beard-man that guy!  We had to give talks in Sacrament which went pretty well I thought.  It sounds like you guys are having fun on your Christmas break.  Hopefully, all goes well for you, especially staying home with Whitney and Vanessa-haha.  Love ya!

Elder Whaley
Of a Atu

Shad's stocking with one thing in it (who knows where
everything else is).

His gifts before opened.

Zone Christmas exchange?  

Putting something frozen on the black eye.

A fun gingerbread man for the Elders

Christmas Gift!

12-25-13

You said you wanted my testimony for your Christmas gift.  Here it is:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is SO TRUE!!!!!  Being on a mission has opened my eyes a lot more to the gospel and how it works and it in action.  The Atonement is Awesome!  I'm still learning about it, but it's awesome to watch people change through the atonement and to see it when they are humbled and feel the Savior's love!  I love feeling the Spirit so much!  It just is an awesome experience to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost as we are obedient and worthy!  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet that restored Christ's church back to this wonderful earth.  Through the power of God, he was able to translate the Book of Mormon.  One of the greatest gifts to the world!  The Book of Mormon is the evidence of the true church and is amazing.  If anyone wants to come closer to Christ or just be better, they need to read the Book of Mormon!  I learn things all the time!  It really stinks when people we love don't read the Book of Mormon, because I know what it holds and what it could do for them.  By coming on a mission, I have gained a testimony of the temple, going to the temple, etc.  It's amazing the power/sacredness it holds just walking on the temple grounds!  It is such a big tool for missionary work because getting less actives or investigators there makes it so they can feel the spirit and hopefully have a desire.  It's also awesome to watch people working on going to the temple.  Satan works hard to stop them, but it's awesome to watch them change and become happier!  The temple is such an awesome place!  Strive to attend regularly.  Your lives will be much better because of it.  I love to be able to go every once in awhile and feel the Spirit and enjoy going inside!  Church is awesome on Sundays.  Even though I didn't like it much before, it's because I didn't see the importance or the real reason!  But, now I see and it makes it so much better!  Church is a great place to learn and grow and deepen your testimony with those around you that you love.  I know that everything happens for a reason and God's ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts.  I am grateful to have a living prophet during this period of time.  I'm grateful for you and love you!  I bear theses things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Love,
Elder Whaley

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!