Elder Matthew Whittle--November 28, 2012

Hahaha Boo Ya!

I'm glad Josh caught that:) haha It's possible that I could extend. The thing is with all these new missionaries coming in it might throw some stuff off, but if I do extend it will only be a couple of weeks. I hope I can! That would be awesome!

So for thanksgiving we ate some super narsty stuff. We ate a Phillapino delacacy called Balut. It's a half-incubated duck egg. It was pretty disgusting. We filmed ourselves eating it and we felt like throwing up a couple of times, but we ate the whole thing. So the egg is warm, and you crack it open and some juice starts to come out so you suck the juice out. (That made me wanna barf haha.) The juice was like brown and didn't smell the greatest haha. Then you break away the rest of the egg shell. Well to my luck the first thing that I saw when I opened the egg was the long neck and the head all squished into the body. So I uncovered it more and asked sister W. what I do next. She said just bite into it all. So we just started eating it all like a boiled egg. There were a couple of times I felt a little bit of a crunch. (probably like the beak or something haha.) The egg white was pretty gross too. It was all down at the bottom and it was really hard, and tasted like we were eating crumpled up rubber. So ya it was a fun experience. Sister W. was just laughing the whole time, and then said well now you don't have to eat anymore all day. You just ate an entire duck haha. She's so awesome!

I've been just teaching in english, but still get to talk to people on the street in Spanish a lot. It's fun. I just got to go on exchanges with Elder Simmons in spanishland here in Vista. We saw so many miracles together. He's the District Leader now in the Vista Spanish District so I get to see him quite a bit. There was a hispanic lady that we talked to and we asked her if we could come by and teach her and her family about Jesus Christ. She said no, la verdad es que somos catolicos. (The truth is that were Catholics.) So we asked her, well have you ever wondered why there are so many religions and different beliefs. She said ya know I have. I've wondered that same thing. So then we told her well the original church that Christ established was lost once the apostle's were killed and everyone just began to do their own thing, but we know that the Church of Jesus Christ has been brought back and that God has called a prophet and twelve apostle's to guide his church. Then we asked what would it mean to you if you could know that Christ's church was restored? She told us it would mean everything to her. Then we said what if we were to tell you that we had evidence of that, would you be interested in seeing that evidence. She said yes I would. So we explained to her what the book of mormon was and about Joseph Smith. She then said that we could come by this weekend and share it with her family. It was a really neat experience. People don't understand what we really have, but the more they begin to understand it, the more they want it in their lives.

I hope that Josh is doing better. I keep praying for him as well. Tell him I will write him soon, as well as the Choster. I'm glad that he'll be closer now. I miss that guy. I think about him a lot, and pray for him. How's Justin Christensen and Caleb Weeks doing? They're home now right?? That's so weird. I can't believe it's already almost December. Tell them all Hola por mi:)

 

Things have been going really well. Super busy, but good! It was really neat to have Elder Schwitzer here with us. Hope everything is going well for all of you. Love you all. Keep looking for missionary opportunities:)

Con amor,

Elder Witle!

Elder Corbin Moore-- November 26, 2012

Subject: Nothing Like a Good Ol' Thanksgiving Dinner

Gobble, Gobble, oh wait thanksgiving is finally over, now its time for the best part of the year. Yes as you may have guessed I do love the Christmas season, but let me give you a re-cap of the week of Thanksgiving. Well the week started off with a good meeting with the leadership of our zone. We got together to discuss the successes of our zone and to see what goals we could set for the month of December to help us be better missionaries. So that went really well, we were able to generate a lot of ideas, and we will be meeting this tomorrow to finalize the zone goal of December. Tuesday night we were able to go and have dinner with a less active family and to show them the new mormon.org/christmas website. Unfortunately they didn't have it in Spanish so we just watched the video and other things in English. All in all I hope that it was a good experience for them and that they were able to feel the christmas spirit. After that we passed by a members home, and as we were walking to the door, I almost walked right into a spider. Elder Garrett walked just to the left of the spiders web, and I was walking right next to him. But as I started getting closer, I saw something floating in the air. Then I realized that it was a huge spider. I took some photos of it so you will be able to see it.

So for Thanksgiving, we ate in the house of our Bishop. When I say we I mean, Elder Garrett and I, and the other two elders in the ward, Elder Thurgood, and Elder Petrie. Our Bishop is a white man that served in Argentina, where he met his wife, I thought that was interesting seeming how my brother did the same. And so Sister Ma made all the food, and it was so good. We had turkey, obviously, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, yams, macaroni casserole, finnel, and amazing pie. Basically it was like I was eating American food, but with a different family. I was a good thanksgiving dinner, and then after we went over to other home to pick up some food, that another member had made for us. It was a good thanksgiving, just without the board games, and family.

We were able to see M. and E. this week, and then they cancelled the appointment on saturday, kinda a bummer, but M. came to church yesterday which was great. She really enjoyed it, and said that next week her mom is going to come as well. I will be good. We were able to set baptismal dates with them for the 23rd of December, so they are excited about that. Also I talked with Elder Hardman and he said that the M. family is getting baptized on the 9th of December, so I will hopefully be able to make it down there for that.

Well it sounds like Thanksgiving was wonderful for all of you. Are you all getting ready for Christmas, and the spirit of the season. Remember not to get too caught up in the material aspect of things. Brayden congrats on the baby stuff, I'm sure it will all be great. Hope that everyone is having a great time, and enjoying life. Thanks to all who have been writing me emails every week, Oma and Opa, my wonderful parents. Hope to hear from you all soon.

Con Amor

Elder Moore

Everything.Happens.For.A.Reason

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

Elder Taylor Ferguson- Novemer 26, 2012

Mammay-

Thanksgiving has come and gone supes fast. And this week I finished my 2nd transfer, and training woot woot. haha, The week was....interesting. For thanksgiving day, we had a turkey bowl, which was fun, w/ a lot of the missionaries, and the ward. Then we went to The professional Skydiver/basejumper's house, kinda ate w/ him a little, which was good/sad cause he is going through some rough family stuff right now/recovering from surgery and he was all alone for t-givings. Then we ate w/ the H's (Brother H does some of the temple tours and is super awesome.) For the main meal, w/ the Portugese elders. Then went to the Young Women Pres house, and ate there a little bit...but that was it. It was a rough day.We had a lot of families cancel on us, and couldn't really go tracting...so it was rough. But we made it through that, and then on Friday, Elder Cooper was really sick so we just stayed inside all day, and I read the scriptures ALL day, which was good till about 6 at night. Thennnnnn I was bored. so yeah. It was great. haha. But our Haitian Friends were baptized on Sunday, so we were suuups happy for them.

I love you guys thank you all so much for everything you do, be safe.

Elder Ferguson

Elder Matthew Whittle-- November 20, 2012

Hola!

Man I'm so jealous that Jaden is going to Peru! That's so awesome. Peruvians are the best. I've taught a couple of them on my mission. They're such great people. She should try and learn quechwa (spelling?) while she's down there. That's awesome about Brad as well. Tell him congrats. He's going to love Chile. We have people in our ward who are from Chile and they're super nice. They always ask if we are hungry or thirsty and want to feed us haha. Brad's going to get fat:)

Elder Goble is from American Fork. He's such a funny guy. We've been having a blast. He has one eye and the other one is fake so he always opens and closes his pens with his eye and it freaks everybody out.

It was so great to see Grandma in the Temple. She has such a good spirit about her. I feel like she's the one with the shining light. It was fun to talk to her there while she introduced me to everyone. She needs to come up to Utah when I get back and live with us!

Gertrude is doing great! He wrote me a big long letter talking about how KT Mafia is going to be restarted once we all get back, and told me a lot about how his mission is going. He seems to be growing a lot and seems to be doing a great job with the language. I'm excited to talk to him one day in Spanish. It will be fun. Tell Josh he needs to start learning! He's got a year still ;) (extension! Boo ya!)

The conference with Elder Schwitzer was so great. Kind of stressful getting everything set up and giving trainings, but it was great! The spirit was really strong. It's always neet when a General Authority visits the mission. President Cook came out to a couple lessons with us when Elder Schwitzer was here, and Elder Schwitzer went out with the assistants to a lesson. It was a neat experience. Elder Schwitzer's car battery died just as we were leaving with President Cook, so Elder Goble and I turned around and went and gave Elder Schwitzer a jump.

Things have been going well. I can't believe that we are already half-way through the transfer. We've been so busy that this transfer has just flown by. Elder Goble and I are getting ready to sing and play guitar together at the Christmas talent show. It's going to be fun. We're going to sing Nearer my God to thee. We'll try and record it.

Wellp not a lot of new stuff to tell ya. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving! Love you all. I like the Carne asada idea. You should make Molet! I love that stuff! Don't forget the Chapulines!

Con amor,

Elder Witle!

P.S. Tell Kaleigh congrajulations for me!

 

Elder Garrett Allen-- November 18, 2012

Well another amazing letter has been sent from my amazing mother. take you very much for that amazing insist into marriage. Seriously on of the best parts about this whole mission thing is knowing that every monday I am able to go and read an amazing letter from a women that i respect and love so much. Really mom you are the best and thank you for everything that you did for me and that you are still doing. It meand so much and I am eternally gratefully. I LOVE YOU!!!

So the first thing is about the whole empty house thing...so I think it is time to let you into my plan...well better said me and brandons plans. So we are thinking about moving into your home and living there for a while to finish school and get are lives started again. So if that is cool with you that would be sweet haha. It is just and idea but it will probably happen. So we could just live in the basement. Obviously i will be but it would be sweet with brandon too haha. Also we would help around the house so you would have to extra hands haha so that is in the works maybe it will work out and that way you wont be so lonely haha. We could put all of the box out of the way and basically just rock it up hah. so yea. that would be the plan...if we had to we could play rent haha so yep. Anyways just think about it. I dont want to sound trunky haha but it is just some plan that popped into my mind when you talked about be lonely. Anyways, so if brandon gets home before me you should let him live in my room until we get home and he can be like your son for 6 months bahahaha.

So about the whole coming to argentina thing....So if that is super exspensive then i dont know but it would be pretty dang interesting to have you guys come here and to show you everything...I am not sure how it all works if the parents come to pick you up so we woulf have to figure all of that out some how but yea. It would be pretty cool. It would be really cool if some how we could get to chubut to go the elder gallardos house but that would be hard to do. It is on the otherside of the country. so we will see...honestly if it is alot of money you shouldn´t do it...honestly i will have absolutely nothing in the area of money when i got home so that will be my challenge but god has my back so i have faith. I will just have to work hard. I lot of people thinks life gets easier when the mission is over but i only see it getting harder haha.

Well now to tell you about the crazy week that i had haha. So it started out pretty normal and then it turned out everyone has a lot of problems and as a missionary there is a whole lot that i can do. When family doesn´t have food to eat so it is go talk to the bishop, the second problem was my husband beats me so we say go talk to the bishop. After that the week got crazy. We had to prepare for the baptism and get everything ready...the problem with that is that the founts here done drain by them selves they pump them out but luckly for us the pump is broken and they didn´t fix it so we and my comp got to get the water out by buckets!!! Heck yea!!! Another thing to remember!!! so basically i spent 3 hours getting the water out. It was crazy and we both ended up some what wet. The things that we do to get it all worked out and going well. Crazy. haha. After that the baptism went well. So after that day i was blessed to go see M. and N. get married friday. That is right. i got promission to go see there wedding!!! It was amazing.M. and N. are my good family that threw me the birthday party and everything. so those are the pictures. It was so good to see them again...it was like a taste of coming home and seeing my family and friends and just being in that again. It was a huge blessing an now i am so very greatful to be so close to my old area. The lord really is watching out for me. It is a nice feeling. also I gave Elder Gallardo his jersey there an he basically freaked out. He is super happy and thankful for it. He says thanks. There is also a photo of that :) He also says that he will send you a present mom from the south of argentina so some day you might end up with a random package from Chubut argentina haha. Thanks for sending it. It meant a lot to him. So after that adventure we had a pretty slow week. it was hard for me to get my head into the game for some reason but hopefully this week will be better.

So about where I am at. I leave in a house now. the houses here are all pushed together and all of that stuff. Basically where I am is city. There are very busy streets and a lot of people. The house i live in is pretty goo. We have ac so that is a total plus. The shower doesnt work and when it rains here are ceiling is full of holes so are front little room feels with water. It was interesting this week because we had a super strong storm that turned to power of for a while and dumped rain. The room basically became the great salt lake bahah. It was fun. there is a picture of that also. I dont know if you will be able to see it but it is there haha. There are still motos here but more people drive cars so that is different and the people are super different. It is only 15 minutes away but it is super different for some reason..it strange how it works out haha. As for beds we have bunkbeds so i am up off the floor. So everything is going well. It is weird to be in a house but it isnt to bad. The ac makes it all worth it haha..

So that is basically my week. I will be printing off your email for later to copy haha. There are some good things in there. It basically makes me happy. I am super glad to be in the work of the lord. The truth is that right now I am struggling but you just got to stay positive and look for the lords will and not yours. There is a great mormon message about a gardener with that by Christofferson. If Josh reads this I think that he should wash it. It helped me out this week. I am very thankful for all of those people that are helping and praying for my. I am so very greatful for all of you and for everything tht you do for me. Take care of yourselves and be safe. I love you all and the church is true!!!! look for the lords will in your life and all we work out. Try to be better everyday and find the things that you have to imporove. The lord will help you. That is the gift of the light of christ. Be strong in the faith and sure the scriptures. HAVE FAITH!!!!

I love you all and until next week. Paz Fuera.

Your beloved, Elder Allen

P.s. this transfer is over and i am still with elder bryner in the same spot so nothing has changed. I love you.

Elder Corbin Morre-- November 19, 2012

Well this week was a really good week here in Los Angeles. I was able to start speaking more Spanish with the members and the investigators that we have. I came back super quick, and now I'm basically back up to speed. We had a successful week, being able to see a lot of our investigators, and setting return appointments with them if they were busy. Hopefully we will be able to see all of them this week. This week we had MLT (mission leadership training), it was super good we were able to talk a lot about the stuff that is going to be happening for the holidays here in Los Angeles, and some of the stuff that the church is doing abroad. We are going to be trying to incorporate all of that in our teaching, and help our investigators and members, really have a wonderful experience this holiday season.

On Tuesday I was able to teach a member of our ward, his name is A. C. He was someone that Sister Christensen, Justin's older sister, knew when see served in this ward. I you are confused I'm sure Josh can fill you in on who they both are. So that was kewl, because I was reading through a list of names that she gave me, and their family was one of them. Super Kewl. It is awesome how the Lord works. I love it.

So about my companion, Elder Garrett. He is from Beaver Creek, Ohio, and came out to the mission the transfer before me. He is one of four kids, and is the third. Fun fact about him, he started his mission in the MTC, going to the Los Angeles mission, two weeks after his older brother came back from serving in the Los Angeles mission. I thought that that was kinda kewl.

Sorry got to run, Happy late birthday to B-money.

Con Amor

Elder Moore

ELder Taylor Ferguson-- November 19, 2012

Hello everyone,

Sorry I  don't have much time to talk. I'mma go get my hair cut in a sec.  Our investigator pool kiiiiinda stinks...we had to pass off all our good investigators to their language missionaries. And our 1 main progressing investigator believes that the Lords prayer is the only true prayer we are to say, and he isn't even catholic! haha But it's ok we're meeting tons of new people every day, and we'll be converting potentials into INVESTIGATORS or GATORS for short haha.  For Thanksgiving we will need to stay w/ members most the day, but we CAN participate in a turkey bowl so we;ll do that and it'll be good. The pictures of your beard didn't come through. talk to yall nexty week.

 love you!

TJ