So Much to Do and Not Enough Time!

1-26-15

Un, I would love dutch oven food or Big Judd's!!!!  I got my flight itinerary a while back and realized that there will be 2 other missionaries and their families at the IF airport at the same time, just to let you know so it might be crowded.  So, I guess you can decide what to do from there.  What? J. sent in her mission papers?  That's awesome to hear!!!!  So president changed how we report numbers so active member lessons don't count anymore.  We don't report how many people we contact a week anymore, he wants us to get 6 new investigators a week, and other stuff.  It's just trickier to get lessons that actually count in reporting, but it's alright.  I don't have to deal with it that much-haha.  That's funny about the fake deer!  At least that's one more friend-haha.  Good thing you guys weren't at Walgreen's at the time of the shooting!  Sounds like you just missed it!  Well, this week was pretty good.  We were able to do about 20 hours of service this week.  It was pretty good!  Just different random services throughout the week.  We were able to actually have splits with the elders quorum this week, as well.  We have been trying to get that going and it finally happened and it went well!  We were able to get in with a couple of less actives!!  Hopefully, things go super well this week!  Man, almost everyone know I'm going home and I'm getting sick of people asking me what I'm going to do in a couple of weeks and younger missionaries bugging me about it.  It just doesn't feel real!  I just can't see myself coming home.  Everytime I keep thinking about the up coming weeks, it's just about who we need to see and what they need and what we need to do to find new investigators, but then it hits me that I won't be here!  FLIP!!!!!  I hate this feeling!  So much to do and not enough time!!!  Man, it's frustrating, there has been new less actives we have been working with, but I don't have enough time to help them to the place I want to get them to!  But, other than that, things are going good!  Just working hard and driving my companion a little crazy since he's tired and I don't care.  I just want to go out and work!  Oh dang, my secret is out huh?  Oh man!  Well, of course, I might be somewhat good at country dancing, I went a lot!  haha.  I'm probably a little rusty now.  I guess I'll just have to go back and work on it more.  Well, I hope you have a great week!  Love ya!

Ofa Atu!
Elder Whaley

Outgoing missionaries from the
San Jose, CA mission

Establishing a Good Work Ethic

1-20-15

Yep, it was a good birthday!  They didn't know it was my birthday so they found out and just got three muffins and threw it together real quick-haha.  It was good though!  I saw Sister Allen on the way back from Santa Cruz, yesterday!  Thanks so much.  Yes, I got the birthday box-thank you!!!!  Things are going good.  We're working working hard to find people to teach.  We have found quite a few less actives, which is always good, too!  Holy cow, I can't believe it's so close to coming home.  It feels so unreal!  I definitely have mixed emotions about it!  President Mella sent a letter huh?  I didn't realize they did that.  Sounds like you had a good week and good day off yesterday!  We went to Santa Cruz yesterday for the last time.  It was lots of fun.  We played volleyball and rugby on the beach and ate super good clam chowder on the wharf.  It was super nice!  Last week we had Zone Conference on Thursday and it went from about 8 in the morning to about 4 or 5 p.m.  It was long, but it was because president Mella changed quite a bit of things, so interesting and good things that I think will help the mission move forward.  It's interesting how things changed especially doing the same things for about 23 months.  Reporting this last week was different than usual which makes you stretch I guess.  But, all in all, things are going good.  I'm just trying to establish a good work ethic in this area to help the work keep moving forward!  Well, I hope you have a great week!  Love ya!

Ofa Atu,
Elder Whaley

Last P-day playing rugby and volleyball!

Birthday muffins, turned cake!

Time is going by Fast!

1-12-15

Well, Mom, you are getting pretty old, ya know?  JK.  Koko Samoa is super good!  It's just like Samoan hot chocolate!  The Samoan sisters gave me some and I made a pot of it and drank the whole thing already...so good!
This week was pretty good.  We had Elder Cook come speak to us on Saturday.  It was really good.  We just basically asked questions and he answered along with the presiding bishop-the one from France and someone from the missionary department.  It was really good!  We had a pretty good week.  We were able to meet with a former investigator that was in the area book, but he is a strong 7th day Adventist, so it's been interesting talking to him.  We also went to a missionary farewell in the Samoan branch for a sister whose family we got really close to!  It was so good to go back, but I don't know what it is about Polynesians, but the Spirit was so strong in Sacrament meeting-it was awesome!  I loved serving in the branch!  It was good to see people again!  For the 2nd hour of that, we went to the setting apart and got to stand in on that and it was super cool and such a great experience.  She is actually going to Guam and I emailed Ben Barrus and I guess he gets to pick her up when she gets there and do some training so that's super cool...small world!  It was such a cool farewell to go to!  This week is looking good.  We have quite a bit already planned out to do, so I'm excited for this week!  It should be good!  Last week was a little slow, but we did quite a bit of service, which was great!  We are having zone conference this Thursday, as well, so we'll see how it is, but it should be good!  Man, time is going by super fast!  This last week was crazy fast and I can't believe it's P-day again already!  I hope you have a great week!  Love ya!

Ofa Atu,
Elder Whaley

Building a Hot Wheels Track

1-5-15

I don't care who is at the airport.  Whoever wants to come I guess.  Ahhh-so many questions that I don't want to really answer! :/  My favorite ice cream is cookie dough ice cream and I love Tongan food!!!!!  (I was asking him his favorite cake, ice cream, and food for his birthday) Oh, and I love Koko Samoa!!!!  I don't really need anything out here for my birthday.  I don't want to have to send more stuff home.  I would probably just prefer to wait until I get home for birthday stuff, since there will only be a couple of weeks left by the 18th, that way I can get things I need back home-like clothes and other stuff because I'm guessing I've probably outgrown some stuff or gotten too fat for some clothes-haha.  It sounds like you have had a pretty good Christmas break!  I'm glad it was pretty relaxing!  For New Year's we went to a member's house in another ward and had quite a few appetizers and we made a huge hot wheels track in their living room.  It was really fun!  I guess they do that every year for New Year's  with the missionaries.  It was a lot of fun and we watched the ball drop in NYC since we had to be in by 9, then we spent the night at another Elders apartment and we had permission to stay up, so we just talked, ate food, and played board games.  It was pretty fun!  I was so tired the next day since we weren't able to sleep in and we had gotten up at 5:30 a.m. the day before to play basketball with some members.  It was all good, though!  Everyone is starting to return from the holidays, so hopefully, the work will pick up since this last week was a little slow.  We went through some former investigators and got ahold of this one guy and he said to come on over.  We went over there and discovered that he's in the other Elders area and smokes a lot.  I see why previous elders dropped him because he just wanted to Bible bash with us, so that was interesting.  That's not happening again-haha.  Other than that, it was just a lot of active member visits trying to get to know the new ward and all and it's gotten colder here lately, so not too many people out on the streets to talk to.  Hopefully, it gets better!  Well, I hope it doesn't get too crazy back at work and you have a great week!  Love ya!

Ofa Atu!
Elder Whaley

A lot of Fun, But Work is Slow!

12-29-14

It was great talking with you guys, but man it was so weird being called "Shad" on the phone.  I definitely wasn't used to it, it was kinda throwing me off-haha!  It was still good, though!  'Ol Uncle Craig trying to set me up....oh man, I'm not ready!  That's good you had a good Christmas.  It sounds like you had a lot of fun being with the rest of the family!  Hopefully, everything goes well down in Utah for Dad and you are able to have some fun, as well!  Ya, the singles ward is quite a bit different than family wards-definitely a lot quieter.  That picture you sent of "The Tree of Life" was pretty cool!  That would take a lot of work!  Christmas was great.  We had breakfast and opened gifts with the Hulse family in the morning, then called home, then went to the Fredrickson's for lunch and played ping pong.  Haha-I killed Elder Payne at that!  We then went to the Cook's, a Tongan family, for dinner and had a pig and delicious Tongan food.  It was great and they had me sing and play Silent Night on the ukulele-haha-it was alright, but a lot of fun!  The work was kinda slow this week since everyone was gone.  It's been fun having members' kids coming back from college for Christmas, though.  We had dinner with the bishop and their son just came back from Utah State, so it was fun talking to him, but he's going on a mission to Texas soon.  Right before that dinner, we found a super cool less active that we are going to probably start working with, so that's exciting, but no new investigators.  On Christmas Eve we had our mission Christmas party where we had breakfast and then we did our talent show.  We did a Fijian dance and song and a couple of Hakas-they were super fun to do!  We had a white elephant afterwards and it was a lot of fun.  After that, we had dinner with the Blake's and we were able to to be part of their 80 year old tradition of having a waffle Christmas Eve dinner.  It was a lot of fun.  We then went over to Sister Uluave and ate again-haha!  Elder Payne was dying!!  We also had another white elephant thing and it was a good week of fun, but not so much for the work!  That's the hard part of the holidays-everyone is traveling!  Well, I hope you have another great week!

Ofa Atu!
Elder Whaley

Elder Shad Whaley (3rd from the left) doing the Haka
or a Fijian dance

San Jose Missionaries
(Where's Elder Whaley?)

Elder Whaley with his son, Elder Jones and
other missionaries at the Christmas party 

Elder Whaley with other San Jose missionaries
at the Christmas party

Idaho Boys Don't Get Trunky!

12-22-14

Wow-it sounds like you have had an eventful week with everything going on.  I'll probably call around 1:00 your time, but we only have 30-45 minutes this time.  I look forward to calling you guys on Thursday!  We need to find investigators before we have a "White Christmas", but I hope you guys have a great Christmas!  That's too bad that there's no snow, but now you know how I feel-haha!  I can't believe that Sis. T. got hit by a car and Jason as well?  Thank goodness it wasn't worse for them. The Pierce's emailed and it was really cool!  They said I can go sit in an Apache helicopter!  Wahoo!!!  That would be awesome!
Things are going good, a little stressful, but that's just part of the work since they've changed up the boundaries.  We have been just trying to figure out who still lives in the ward and where everyone lives now, but it's going pretty good!  Elder Payne is my new companion.  He is definitely shorter than I am.  He definitely has a different personality, but he's going to work whether he likes it or not!  Just like brother said, Idaho boys don't get trunky-haha!  No, I haven't gotten the package yet, but maybe I'll get it today.  I was able to meet up with Sis. Allen and I loved the cookies!  I sent one box back  with her.  Oh-please don't go through the box!  I trust ya!  There are envelopes at the top with Christmas cards that you can give to families, but that's it!  Mom, I know you're curious, but don't go past the blanket!!!!!!!!!!!  Haha!  Well, things look like they'll run a little smoother now we got some things figured out, so I'm excited to see what happens!  We'll talk to you on Thursday!  Tau Toki Sio!

Ofa Atu!
Elder Whaley

Elder Whaley and Elder Payne

Only 7 Weeks Left!

12-15-14

Well, I'll probably just call on Christmas, but I don't know what time yet.  I'll let you know next week.  A white Christmas huh?  In California, how about a wet one?!  It's been raining for the last couple of days.  On Thursday, there was a big rain storm and it rained for 2 days straight, which is good since we had the car and California is in a drought.  Members were all telling us to get water supply and extra food.  It wasn't that bad, it just rained really hard!  It was pretty cool!  Man, people don't know how to drive int he rain out here!  It's flippin' crazy this is my last transfer! :(  Only 7 more weeks!  Holy flippin' crap-I'm freakin' out!!!!!!  Elder Strauss is getting transferred and he knows the ward a lot better than I do, so it's going to be interesting.  It will also be interesting to see who my new companion is.  Hopefully, it's someone who wants to work hard and someone I get along with. :/  I want to finish out strong and fun!  We were suppose to go to Santa Cruz today, but it's raining again, bummer!  Things are going alright.  The work is kinda slow right now.  We just dropped our last investigator and we're working with a couple of less actives.  Hopefully, it picks up nd we're able to find people to teach, but it's kinda hard.  This area is pretty wealthy so we'll see what happens!  it sounds like you have a fun time coming up around the holidays.  Hopefully, all goes well!  Love ya!

Ofa Atu,
Eler Whaley

Elder Shad Whaley in the rain

Elder Strauss and Elder Whaley
in the Big red chair