Elder Matthew Whittle-- September 26, 2012

Hola!

 

President Cook always lets the cat right out of the bag haha. So there's kind of a twist on things that I don't think he mentioned. I'm not in Escondido. I'm in Vista, and I'm in english work now. It was really weird. I was not expecting that to happen at all. We were sitting in transfer meeting and I was waiting for him to get done announcing the english elders so I wasn't really paying attention when suddenly I heard my name. It caught me so off guard that I didn't even here where I was going. It was crazy! So ya now I'm here in Vista. I feel kind of weird being in English work, but I'm getting used to it. Luckily there are a ton of hispanics here so I still get to talk a lot of spanish in the streets. Plus I get to go on exchanges with the spanish elders so that's good at least. The hardest thing is I feel like I've lost my english. Sometimes I say things kind of strangely haha and my companion makes fun of me, but I'm getting better at it. It's fun to be a zone leader. We get to go to all the district meetings and get to know more of the missionaries.

 

So it was really cool on sunday. Every sunday morning we get up around 5:30 and head up to camp pendleton to teach the marines. They have a branch up there of about 40 recruits. It's awesome because they bring their friends to church and then after sacrament we go and teach them in a different room. They're only there for 6 weeks I believe so we try and get them to get ready for baptism quickly. It's really cool how it all works. Boot camp is definitely a humbling experience for them.

 

So my companions name is Elder Rupp. The crazy thing is that he lives right up by the Whittle's in Logan. He sat in front of Kayla in Calc class or something like that. Knows who Jake is, and had a class with Krista. He was really good friends with Austin Robbins, there next door neighbor. He's a funny guy, and a good missionary. We've been seeing some cool miracles together.

 

So Cherry's still alive eh? That's good to hear. I'm glad nobody has totaled her or anything;) haha. Does smoto still run? Sounds like things are pretty much the same back home. How's Cho? I miss that guy. How's mama cho doing?

 

We were able to set a baptismal date the other night with the wife of a member. It was an awesome lesson. She brought up how she was raised in the Catholic church, and how she was a very devout catholic, and she had made a promise to her father who passed away that she would never join the mormon church. Well she told us that night that she was feeling like something was missing in her life, and that she wasn't exactly sure what but she needed to figure it out. We talked about priesthood authority and why it was important for baptism. She told us that she didn't believe the Catholic church had that authority. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted. The other day she saw us on the street, pulled over to talk to us and said she's excited for the 3 of November and she's already inviting people. It's amazing how the spirit causes people to feel and understand things. None of that was Elder Rupp and I. It was all the spirit, telling her that she was missing something and that she needed to be baptized by someone with authority. Have you had any cool missionary experiences lately? If not you should start praying for them, because they're the best! It helps your testimony grow so much when you see the spirit work on others.

 

Well things are going amazing. I feel kind of weird being in english work, but it's fun. Hope yall have a good week! love you all. Adios!

 

Con Amor,

Elder Whittle

 

P.S. So this morning a helicopter was circling our area with a huge megaphone saying that there was a felon on the loose. It kept repeating 30 year old male hispanic, black pants, black shirt, red hat. So ya keep an eye out for him haha. It was crazy. k bye.

 

P.S.S. The Church is TRUE! yaya

 

Elder Taylor Ferguson--September 13, 2012

Elder Ferguson with his Trainer Elder Costa (I found this picture on the Florida Orlando Mission Website  http://floridaorlandomission2010.blogspot.com/)

ELder Matthew Whittle -- September 11, 2012

Hey Que Honda!

Man this is a great area! Things are going so great. We had a bunch of investigators come to church on sunday, and they liked it a lot. The Lord has really been blessing us. We're doing really well as a district as well. I've never had such a unified district. It's amazing. Yesterday we had a district meeting and we had a testimony meeting in the Chapel as a district. The spirit was so strong! It was great. I don't ever want to leave this area, but I'm going to have to in 6 more weeks:( That's going to be a hard day.

How's Josh doing? Does he know for sure yet? I think him and his Grandpa should come out to Mission Viejo instead:) They would love it! The people here are great. There's people from all over southern and central america here. We're teaching somebody from Peru right now, and she's been teaching me some Quechwa. It's a dialect from Peru. Really cool sounding too. Imainum chachi canki. (como estas en quechwa). It's been really neat to get to know all these different people. I look back and it's really neat to see that I've taught people from korea, brazil, argentina, guatemala, el salvador, peru, colombia, and all parts of mexico. It's so much fun to get to know all the different cultures.

 

Elder Hall is doing great. He's been talking more and more. We've been having so much fun together. He has a really fun sense of humor. It's very dry. He's says the funniest things, but he doesn't change his tone of voice or anything.

 

I'll try and get you some more pictures sent. It's hard to find time because we always have things to be doing, but that's a good thing. This last transfer just flew by. It was crazy. It's seems like we just started the transfer last week. Transfer calls are this weekend, and then transfers are on tuesday, but I don't think anyone in my district is going to be leaving since it was pretty much a district white wash. Elder Kitchen. Do you remember him? He's from farmington. He came out about 8 months ago I think? He's in my district too. He was the only one that had been here before the rest of us got here. So basically all the missionaries in the district are new to the area except Elder Kitchen.

 

Well Hope you all have a great week. Que esten bien! Banense y no coman tierra!:) Les quiero. adios.

 

Con amor,

Elder Witle

 

p..s. Por que vuelan al sur los pajaros en el tiempo de frio?

p.p.s. Por que pintan las unas rojas los elefantes?

Elder Taylor Ferguson--September 10, 2012

Hello everyone!

 How are things going? I loved all the care packages!  I've eaten so much stuff haha so thanks all, and I  got some great quotes from GG (thanks so much for that by the way, you sent a note about hope, which is the biggest thing that I'm working on right now, is having hope that I am capable of knowing what to say.) which are super great. but I'm kindof put out, because I don't know how any of my family/BRONTe: (my attempt at those dots) is doing! except for the stuff Grandpa Ike has told me. So thanks for that! (for real Grandpa, sarcastically for the rest of you) unless there is something in the mail. 

EVERYONE can e-mail me, I just can't email them back, so I'll write who I can, but I'm suuuuuuper busy

since i don't know what anyone is doing, I'll get to me :

I got here  Tuesday, we took that photo, and sent it to you. We stayed the night at the mission home, went to the chapel the next day, did this orientation thing, and I met my companion, Elder Costa! He's so great, he just got done with himself being trained 3 months ago!!! and Pres. Hall has him training me! He's from San Paulo, Brazil. he was called as a portugese missionary here,  but once he got here was told to speak english.  He's still learning, but can speak pretty well, just i'm working on building my Elder Ferguson vocabulary w/ him. haha.   He works hard  and we follow all the rules! so get off my back! please!!! hahaha I understand why they exsist, and I follow them because I'm a missionary now and thats what we do. 

We are in downtown orlando, our chapel is across from the temple! We're just below Ocoee, our apartment (right across from Valencia College if you know where that is.) It isn't too ghetto, it's actually pretty nice, but compared to all the rest of our districts ours is a dump! haha it's not a city city, like NY, or even Salt Lake as much a mix between ghetto's and gated communities. which our area has both, literally cut in half. One side of the "main" street here is all nice gated rich people, and the other side is purty darn ghetto. It's fun here there are a tooooon of jamacan's, lots of hations? hatons? hacions? people from haiti. hahaha so there is quite a bit of culture it's great. 

Ok so this month we have 5 baptims lined up. 

One guy got baptized the week before I got here,

a mother and 2 of her kids

we have an old lady who is GG's TWIN!.....but she's black....and Ghetto. She's so funny I love her

and we're setting 2 dates for people tonight. so fingers crossed w/ them. 

One of them is a recent converts son, this jamacan(dunno how to spell it) guy who used to play the drums for Ziggy? Marley. I think that's who it was. not Bob, but one of his kids, and they used to tour the world and stuff, first time I met him he was all doo ragged? up.  But he's a way cool and has been going through some really hard times, but you can see the change in him since he's been reading the BOM.

Then the other one is a mid 20's year old single mom, who we met when we were looking for another inactive member. We met her by helping her take in her groceries, then we offered to come back and teach her, she accepted! yay right? Yeah, but the cool part is when we went back she told us that lately her 6 year old son has been asking all these church questions and wanting to pray etc, etc. So that's why she wanted to talk to us! Talk about someone who's been prepared by God? right? 

They are all great, and we have high hopes for them. we're teaching some others, but they arent' as far along.

The members are pretty awesome, and there are a lot, Saturday night while tracting right after having dinner w/ some members, we knocked a door of some members of the Spanish branch who practically force fed us another meal. We were dying!!! But it's funny because the Portuguise? elders did the same thing with some members from our ward last week hahaha

Love you all, but write me more!

I'm learning loads, 

miss you, love you

-Elder Ferguson

Elder Garrett Allen--September 10, 2012

there fam,

Well there goes an other one. This week has been one to remember. It was nice to hear from you and to see that you are making a splash at work haha. Scott is basically a stud and knows what is up. I love that guy. He has got to teach me all of the stuff that he knows. He basically knows how to do everything in this world. Also I hope that work isn´t to crazy for you and that you aren´t going to die. It would be sweet to see you buff but still haha just take care of yourself. Also crazy how everything is changing and grow back home. I got pictures from Jennie and he is already huge. I can´t wait to meat my two new nieces either. That is going to be sweet even though they are far away haha. Also I will try to get a good word in with the big man up stairs about the job. And it is kinda crazy that StacyAnn has three huge boxes of shoes...Haha maybe she will have to begin to down size her collection haha. I love you guys and miss ya. It would be nice to be there with you but appearently the lord had other plans for me ;)

Anyways this week has a good one. This past Sunday we got to see the dedacation of the temple in buenos aires and Saturday was my birthday and the culture event of the temple.

So Miguel treated me great for my birthday haha. We had about a thousand empanadas and it was amazing. I also but to learn how to make them but it is super hard to fold them for me so I kinda failed at that haha. But what can you do. After that we had a cake that his wife made and it has awesome. It had soccer goals and everything. It was a great time. I really enjoyed it. There are photos that i will send you in another email. They also bought me a gift of smell good stuff. They are great. M. is one of my friends and hopefully we will be baptisming his wife soon. We just have to get them married and her to stop smoking. Little things. haha. So that was awesome. After that we got to go to the culture event of the temple in the stake center. It was awesome. We took one of are other investagotores. We got to see all of the tradiccional dances and all of that great stuff. It was awesome. It gave me a deeper love and apperication for argentina and the people here. It is a great place. I love it. The people here are crazy and it makes it all of the better. It was a really good day. A birthday that I will always remember that is for sure haha.

Then the next day we got to see the temple dedaction. It was sweet. The one and only dedaction that I think I will ever see in Spanish. It was interesting to hear eyring talk in english and then here the guy translate it live. My brain hurt a little with the two languages at the same time but it was awesome. There were three parts to it. The first one we forgot are temple recamendations but they let us pass haha. After that we had to go all the way back to find them. But be sides that it was an awesome experience. The temple is really the most important thing that the lord has blessed us with. I may very greatful to live in a bless where these blessing are so close and easy for us. It was also cool to see one of the twele speaking in spanish. Christofferson Knows spanish and he conducted the meetings. It was a awesome experience and the talks were amazing. It really taught me a lot more about the temple and how important it really is to do the work for those people that dont have it. We have to chance to go help the people that can´t help themselves but are waiting for us to do it. We have to help them out!! It was a great experience and yea...in spanish so yep. Eyring changed a lot for me with 3 simple words. He said, "This is Real". That is all. But the spirit hit me so strong from that... This really is real and we really are called and elected to be worth and live rightously to enter in to the temple. There we can keep doing are missionary service as we promessed to do when we entered into baptism. I love the quote that is in preach my gospel that says something along the lines of temple and missionary work are the same thing and that we should start to close the gap between these two things. Its so true. We can help those people that can´t help themselves. This is real. We are really in this to together and have the chance to recieve the great promise in D and C of joy that we can recieve by bring one soul or many souls unto christ. We are in a great and wonderous work.Also Eyring shared his experience about walking in the hall of the temple and feeling that the savior had walked in that same hall. How awesome is that? It really is the house of the lord and he dewells in it. We may not see him but this is really and we need to take away the veal and little and remember the knowledge that we had be for this life and the faith we had in Christ that he would save us.

Anyways those are to two big things that happened this week. I hope my stories match up with all of the crazy stuff happening back home and that you enjoy them. haha

Service is really important in this world. It is the "pure love of christ" and if we dont have charity we are basically nothing according the the scriptures. I am not sure about the whole not being able to bake thing though...I think that it is more of the thought and action that counts and less of what we actually give. Yea of course we have to use are own talents and all of that to and when we have to chance to us it we got try. Cause we cant bury them. Just do whatever you can and try your best that is all you can do right?

Anyways my time and such is gone but that is basically my week. I hope that everything is going great at home and I can´t wait to here from you next week. I am 21 and and still have not done anything haha. Man I am getting old. Anyways I cant wait to hear from you next week. I might be in another area cause this is the last week of the transfer. We will see what happes. It will be sad to leave but I already have 6 and a half months here so yea...ANyways I love you all and hope the past from you!! Take care!

Elder Corbin Moore-- September 11, 2012

Here we are again at the beginning of another week. Hope that everything has been going well for everyone, and that we are all having some good opportunites to share our beliefs with everyone with all the publicity that the Chruch is receiving. Well for us it has been another busy week. We have been running everywhere, and have also had a lot of opportunities to talk to people about the Church.

        We started off the week, with a good Tuesday morning. We had ZLC (zone leader council), with all the zone leaders in the mission. It was a good, long meeting. We received a lot of different trainings and instruction about different topics. Then it was our job to take all of that information and present it for our zones in a Zone Training Meeting. So we tried to soak up all that we could so that we could successfully convey the message. It went really well, but after the meeting I accidently left my backpack at the church. So we went throughout that day thinking that I had left it in our apartment. When we returned home that night to get it, it was not there. Turns out it was left at the church.

        Well sorry it is super super short, but it have to go now. Bye

 

Elder Moore

Elder Taylor Ferguson-- September 3, 2012

I made it here, its hot, its huuuuuuuuuuuuuumid, I'm safe,

It was great to talk to you all this morning.

Love you all,  talk to you when I can

Elder Corbin Moore-- September 4, 2012

Subject: Conquer the Bridge

       Greetings from California! Well what a surprise yet again, I had a busy week. It was really good with a lot of activities jam-packed into one small week. We started off the week with some more meetings in our zone, so that we could get our zone goal up and running. I turned out pretty well but had to have another meeting before the end of the week to finalize everything. We also we informed at the beginning of the the week, that our date for President Interviews was moved up. So everyone in the zone had interviews and we had to do all the coordination of getting everyone there on time, at their scheduled time. Overall it was a successful day, that finish off greatly. On Tuesday I was on splits in other area working with one of our District Leaders, it was a really good day. I was able to sit down to a good home cooked meal with them, and while I was there I was talking to one of the in-active daughters who is now and atheist. I was able to bring some really good points with her, and to answer the questions that she had for me. I hope that she can see the blessing of the gospel, and the light that she is missing without it. Then Thursday night rolled around and I was asked if I could give a training in District meeting the following day. Of course I said yes and was able to prepare a good training about setting goals. Hopefully everyone learned something new, because I know I do everytime that I am giving a training. On Friday I was back on splits with other set of elders. I was with one of the new missionaries that just arrived this transfer. He is from New Zealand and is a great missionary. I was so great to see the "Greenie Fire", or so they call it. He was so ready to share the gospel with everyone. We had a really successful day, talked to alot of people and were able to find four new investigators, hopefully we can beginning teaching all of them. We are still looking for new investigators so whoever we can find is wonderful. I was also able to return back to my old area to see A. get baptized. She asked me to speak at her baptism. I was super weird because it was in Spanish, and I haven't spoken Spanish for what seems like forever. It was nice to be able to see her and her two daughters, K and K Who by the way, should be getting baptized soon. We will see what happens.

       Well I had a couple of interesting opportunities this past week. The first happened last Monday after I had written the email and everything. Elder Takogawa and I had the opportunity to go to Vicente Point, which is like this old lighthouse on the cliffs. We took some pictures and really had a blast. Then for one of the nights this week we were able to eat with one of the members that lives basically on the coast. It was so kewl to be able to eat dinner and to see Catalina Island of in the distance through the haze. The other really kewl opportunity that we had was to do a service project this morning. We woke up at 4 20 and headed down to the.....Long Beach Bridge....I think that what the name was. Anyway they were having their annual race on the bridge. So they shut down the bridge from like four in the morning to 11. We were able to work up on the bridge and cheer on all the runners and put down huge mats, on the grates. It was a super good view. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me.

        Well I'm glad to hear that everything is going well back home. I bet the boys are excited to get back to school. I remember when I was in school, and it was summer. August just dragged on and I wanted to go back. Then school would roll around and I would want to have a break again. Well I hope that everything goes well for them. Bernie, good luck with the football stuff. Remember if you want to be the best, you have to think like the best, act like the best, train like the best, practice like the best, play like the best, BE the best. Keep it up. Work hard and it pays off. Thomas Eddison didn't make a light bulb in one try. In fact he failed many, many times. And when he was asked about his failures. He would reply,"I didn't fail, I just learned one more way not to make a lightbulb." When the going gets tough, the tough better get going. Peace out.

 

Con Amor Elder Moore

 

Everything.Happens.For.A.Reason

There.Is.No.Such.Thing.As.Coincidence

Elder Matthew Whittle-- September 4, 2012

Que Pachuca por taluca mis Chapines! haha

 

La palabra corriente quiere decir current, y arrastrar quiere decir, take away. So remember a shrimp that sleeps, the current takes him away:) Es un dicho en espanol que quiere decir como si alguien no hace algo, las cosas del mundo le controlan. Hay otro dicho bien chistoso: Con paciencia y saliva le hizo el amor, un elefante a una hormiga. haha

 

Things have been going great here. Elder Hall is doing really well. I'm surprised how well he already speaks spanish. He took I think 6 years in school so he already knows it pretty well. The work has been progressing a lot in our area. We have a couple people with fechas bautismales so things are going great! Our district here is awesome too. I've never had a district so unified as I have here. We do conference calls at night, so like a three way call so everyone can talk and we talk about the miracles we all saw during the day. It's really neat. We had a super fun district activity too. We made a cabin out of cardboard and dressed up as cowboys and indians, and made tipees (Spelling?). It was awesome haha. Then we made tin foil dinners, ate cactus, and mexican candy, queso fresco. It was so fun haha. I'll have to send you some pictures of it.

 

Man Jake's already gettin married?! That's crazy. It's really weird to hear about all that stuff. That's cool that you saw Kaleigh. Tell her Hola por mi! That's good that megs and el Chapin are going to be closer to yall. And yes that was a brilliant idea to put all of her stuff in the toyhauler. I know what it's like to live with an older person. It's great! They always brighten up yur day. In Del Mar we lived with a 96 year old senior. He was awesome!

 

I can't believe Kyle is already done. I remember when he left. Time goes by way to fast. Justin Christensen and Caleb Weeks are going to be done super soon as well. How was Kyle's homecoming talk?

 

Wellp I'll try to get some pictures off soon. Love you all. Gracias por todo! Que esten bien! Adios

 

Con Amor,

Elder Witle!