Elder Matthew Whittle-- October 30, 2012

So Lee and I went to California over UEA break for an awards dinner for Lee's work. We flew into San Diego and went to Matthew's mission home and hurried and took a picture and drove through the areas he has been in. He said he only lives 10 minutes from the Mission Home. We hurried with the pictures so we wouldn't risk running into him :0 I didn't want to say goodbye twice and we didn't want to disrupt the flow :) I've attached a few pictures so you can relate to what he is talking about in his e-mail. Have a great day! Just love our missionaries!!!
(Jeanette attached some  great  pictures of the Mission home, Temple and of the area but I could not get the pictures to up load.  Sorry!!---- Carol)

Hey Que Honda!

Man those pictures blew my mind. I go in that door on the side of the church into the mission office about 2 or 3 times a week! That's crazy. I could have come walking out right when you were there haha. President Cook doesn't live there, but he has his office inside. It's the mission office. President Cook has a house in Vista about 10 minutes away. It's a neat church huh? It's huge! It has two Chapels inside, and it's a two story building. I'll have to show you inside someday. The picture with the sign saying Solona Beach by the train station is where I used to run every day. I used to run right under that sign every morning. The light that's at that intersection right after the sign is Fletcher's cove. You would have had to just turn right at the light and you would have been there. I love that area! It's so much fun!

I'm glad that Megs is doing better. I hope she doesn't have to get surgery or anything! That's cool that Brandonion is moving up in life;) por fin. haha Just kiddin.

Things have been going great as usual here in Vista. Today is transfers and Elder Rupp is taking off. He gets to go train for the last 9 weeks of his mission. He's pretty excited. Apparently from what President Cook was saying, there are going to be some pretty big surprises at transfers. I'm excited to see what all happens. The age change has President Cook stressed out because were supposed to all of a sudden in May have 250 in our mission and I think we're around like 140. He has a lot of things to change. It will be really neat to see how it all happens. The Lord is definitely hastening his work.

This week is going to be a really crazy one. Tomorrow morning we're meeting with the stake president to discuss a training that my companion and I will be giving to all the ward mission leaders this coming Sunday, then we have to go to a couple of district meetings, and then on Friday we have Zone Leader Council to be to. So we have a lot to prepare for. It should be fun though. It's good to stay busy.

That's too bad to hear about Mr. B. I really hate how that is. We just started working with a guy who has a super strong testimony of the gospel, but once he moved out to California he felt like everyone was really judgmental because he has a couple of tatoos, and some people made some comments to him saying he needed to wear long sleeves and cover them up. He said he just doesn't feel welcome, and feels like a lot of the members are stuck up. Its a really sad thing to see happen.

Thanks for the glasses! They're great haha. There not exactly approved to wear out proseliting but they're fun to wear at night. We have to be in tomorrow night at 6 for Halloween so we'll probably end up doing some planning and what not.

I hope Josh can get out soon! That would be awesome! I'll keep praying for him. Tell Slot dog (Alex) I said hola! Oh have you heard at all from Alex Tamayo?? I need his address so I can write him a letter. That would be great if you could get that for me! Tell Cho hi for me and that I miss him and his family, and that he can't get married until I get back haha. Well love you all. Keep up the good work with sharing the Gospel, and fellowshipping others. Tengan fe que Dios les va a bedicir con oportunidades misionales.

con amor,

Elder Whittle