"This week was awesome...It was super fun and super productive..."

The roads are very muddy, due to frequent rain, and dirt roads.

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

como les va? I hope you are all doing well. This week was awesome! it was super fun and super productive. well i guess ill start with the fun stuff.

Well for P-day we had a district activity. our distict is small, its just the elders from la Florida and the hermanas de El Dorado, but we still had a bunch of fun. We got together and made tacos and stuff and they turned out good. My cooking skills from the coast came in strong for me! Other fun stuff, we started having activities for the young men and young single adults. We go and play soccer and ping pong every wednesday now and we get a solid turn out. we always have like 15 guys which is pretty solid. Im getting better at soccer. I scored some goals. One of them nailed pipe top shelf. It made me kinda trunkie to do thet playing lacrosse but it was fun. Also all my years of training against Dad in ping pong are coming through for me. This branch has some guys that know how to play but I am in second place. I lost to one of our investigators but i got to go win my honor back this next wednesday. Also our pench shares a wall with a church. Every tuesday, thursday, saturday, and sunday we get to go to bed listening to them sing. its pretty funny. 

Ty working out with paint cans filled with cement.

Well for the work... We have been working pretty hard and we are seeing sucess. We have been contacting a lot of people and we have been fininding a lot of people. Less active members and investigators. When i got here we werent teaching anybody but now we have like 3 soild investigators and a bunch of good contacts that will hopefully turn into something this next week. We have felt the spirit pretty strong in the lessons and the people too. The branch´s average attendance it about 60-70 and this last week for church we had 92 which was super awesome. 

General conference is this weekend! For those of you who arent of my faith, general conference is a conference that happens every 6 months. We are a church that believe in Prophets, apostles, and revelation; and in this conference we get to hear from them. I am so excited. Before the mission i didnt realize how great of a gift it was to have general conference but many times during my mission the words of the prophet have helped me. He recieves revelation to guide us in these days just like moses did to guide the israelites in the olden days. I would like to invite everyone to watch it! Even if it is just for curiosity you will enjopy it. (Mom, put up the information on my blog of when the conference takes place and on what channels they can watch it).

Well i hope you all have a good week! I love you all!

Elder Whitaker

(Hi all-see below for info on how to watch general conference in your area).

All members of the Church are invited to participate in the 184th Semiannual General Conference of the Church, which will convene in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday and Sunday, October 4 and 5, 2014, with general sessions each day at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. mountain daylight time (MDT).

Viewing Options

To view conference sessions at local meetinghouses, check with local leaders on the availability. Find a local meetinghouse at maps.lds.org.

For those not able to view the broadcast in a meetinghouse, the live broadcast will be available via radio, television, satellite, or digital channels such as YouTube. See How to View Live page for details. The event will also be streamed live on the home page of LDS.org beginning 1 hour before the event.

"It's the best to be sharing this message that blesses the lives of others so much...."

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

It was an awesome week. I´m definitely enjoying my time in Km 26 and as a missionary in general. Its the best to be sharing this message that blesses the lives of others so much. I couldnt even believe it when i looked at the calendar and saw that in exactly a year from now I will be on a plane to go home. Its so crazy how time passes.It makes me think about what I have done with this last year, and what I want to do with this next one. Im grateful that I can look back at this last year without regrets, and Im so grateful that i still have a year left to be a missionary. I still have a lot more people to help.

This week was a good one. It was a little more tranquilo than last week. I am getting to know my new area a little better. We are working hard to find new people. Its a little harder to contact here because there are certain places we cant go in the nights because its pretty dangerous but we make do. hahaha i found out imthe 3rd american here in the last 10 years. Its all good though. Bad stuff only happens when you dont follow the rules. I have been tranquilo here. 

We meet all kinds of people here. Here in argentina it is a custom to greet people with "besos" (kisses on the cheek) as missionaries we dont do that but there will always bee people that get mad when you dont give them besos. This week the mom of this one girl we are teaching came and met us to listen to usa as well and she wanted to give me besos and just went for it. It was pretty weird and then shewas making fun of me for going all rigid haha. We met a guy that diciplines his kids by telling them that if they dont behave pepé the frog is going to eat them, and the best part is that these little girls believe it. I had to hide my face in a lesson we had with this family when we asked if we could say the prayer and the little girl said no. The dad just starts calling, "Pepé!!!!" and then she screamed and behaved. Good parenting. I might have to break that one out on my kids one day hahaha.

Well lately we have been meeting a lot of people that are really firm in their beliefs. I have strengthened my testimony of the book of mormon. It is such an inspìred book, written for us. We had an awesome lesson the other day with a catholic woman (the one who wanted to besarme) about the Book of Mormon. She is very firm in her beliefs but we explained the book or mormon to her and then gave her the challenge, "Pray and find out if this book is the truth. If it is, then there are prophets on the earth again and this is the church of jesus christ restored to the earth. If its not the truth, then its all a lie. Whats the harm with asking God for yourself." I know that this Book is true. I know that this woman and anyone else who wants to know, will recieve an answer from the holy spirit that this book is from God if they study it and ask with faith. I invite anybody not of my faith to take the challenge from the bible in James 1:5. Ask God, He wont lie to you. 

Well i hope all is well back home! thank you all for your prayers!

Elder Whitaker

"There is a lot of potential here, and we are going to do some good work..."

Ty loves the people of Argentina

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Como les va todos? This week has been crazy but fun! I landed on another planet here in KM 26 (*Note from Marisa he was transferred from a rural area 6 hours south of Buenos Aires-into the heart of Buenos Aires-an area called Kilometro 26) but it is awesome here. There are no more horses and cows so i feel a little out of place but what are you going to do. I have met so many awesome people in this new branch. The leaders here are awesome and ready to help us! This is the first time that has happened for me so i am super stoked. The work was kinda dead when i got here but we are going to get cracking this week now that I am getting to know the people and where stuff is! There is a lot of potential here and we are going to do some good work.

We got to go to a stake service project and paint a school which was super fun! we were with all the missionaries from our zone. It was nice to get to know some other missionaries. La costa is basically like a separate mission because it is like 6 hours south of the city and we never had any contact with more than the same 18 missionaries. I feel like a stranger and a newby here because everyone knows eachother except me but i have met a bunch of cool new missionaries and reunited with some old ones i knew. We also got to do an open house of a church in the stake. It was a way cool expireience. A lot of people came! we got about 30 references for that area which is awesome. We need to do that back home! 

Well i hope all is good back home and to hear from all of you!

Ty found himself a spiffy little jacket

Elder Whitaker

Ty's district in La Plata

Some mission buddies

"It was weird leaving behind a bunch of families I had grown to love..."

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

como les va? Well this last week has been really bitter sweet for me. I got transfered from Santa Teresita after 6 months serving there. Despite all of the challenges that there were to face, I will miss that place a lot. There were a lot of people that i grew to love muchisimo. Its crazy how that happens. 

Well before i tell you where i am i want to reflect a little on the last couple weeks. I did a bunch of fun stuff. I got to milk a cow on P-day. We got caught in a big lightning storm which cut all the power and then we had to walk in knee deep water back to the pench, one of my best buddies, Elder Merkley, played some sweet songs on his hermonica that some members gave to him ç, and a bunch of other stuff. Some good memories that i wont ever forget. I will miss all the missionaries from La Costa. They are the best.

Yesterday at church was awesome. We commited the hermano lopez to go to church 3 weeks consecutively and if he did he was going to bless the sacrament for the first time with me. I have been working with this family from the start and I am so glad that after all the work with that family that they are on a good path and have the desire to keep on going. It was an awesome moment to be up there with hermano lopez. 

It was weird leaving behind a buncch of the families i had grown to love. There was rosa and a 3 families that we reactivated that were really hard to say bye to but I have faith that i will see them all again one day, in this life or the next.

Well I am now serving in an area called Kilometro 26. Its in the city so i feel like a fish out of water right now, but i hope i can adjust good. Im not really sure what to expect but i hope everything will work out good. Well Thats all for this week. I love you all!

Elder Whitaker

"I felt the spirit so strong while testifying about Joseph Smith being called as a prophet..."

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

Hows it going up there? I had a pretty solid week this week. It was probably one of the best weeks i have had in santa teresita. We started off this week and it felt like spring had already arrived. We were in short sleeves and sweating in the sun and it felt great but then all of a sudden a huge storm came and it had been thunder storming on us for the past 4 days straight. Its pretty awesome out here with the lightning and stuff. Its so much easier to see the road at night haha. My waterproof jacket stopped being waterproof so i have been using this emergency camping parka over my jacket. I found it in my camping stuff and brought it as a joke but now im super stoked that i brought it. All the roads are super flooded so are having to blaze trails and jump over puddles and mini rivers to get to visit people. my long jump has improved a lot. 

As far as work it has also been a good week. We finally found soime investigators. We have been doing a lot of contacting in the streets and stuff and we found a couple solid people. theres one family that im really excited about. We had a really good lesson about the restoration with them. I felt the spirit so strong while testifing about joseph smith being called as a prophet and the book or mormon and i believe they felt it as well. Hopefully we can continue working well with them. 

Because it was raining so hard it was a little hard for people to get to church. but the familia lopez, familia elias, and hermano ruiz went! half the church was people we have reactivated. That made me super happy to see. We have had some good lessons with them. Its amazing how the spirit will let you feel in your heart the truthfulness of the book of mormon or of gods plan for us, or the atonement. We have had some really spiritual lessons this week just focussing on the basics and letting the people feel the spirit instead of trying to explain all of their questions. If you can know with a surety that these basic things are true, you can go forward with faith that the rest wil work itself out for your good. 

Well thats all for this week. I hope all is well with all of you. 

Elder Whitaker

The rain is making  tons of frogs come out everywhere.

This trailer serves as the hospital in Santa Teresita (fingers crossed Ty never needs it).

"I feel like I'm just sowing a lot of seed to be harvested in the future..."

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Que tal? I didnt have time to write last week so im sorry for that. It has been an interesting couple of weeks. Well my new comp is pretty cool but with one flaw, he doesnt know how to cook. I have had comps that cook my whole mission until now so now i have been forced to learn. luckily from watvhing my other comps so much i kinda have an idea. My cooking is getting better and i cook more than slop now. I can make empanadas, milanesa ( argentino fried chicken) pasta and i am inventing with sauces, and burgers. im still trying to learn and get a little more variety though so if anybody knows some basic recipies that a beginner could pull off let me know.

We have contacted just about all of the people that live in santa teresita. now we are breaking up our work so we are in santa teresita one day, then in mar de Tuyu another day and then in las toninas another day. We havent spent too much time in the other cities before so we dont have many people to teach. Im using my boyscout skills to read all the maps and stuff because neither one of us knew where we were. We have been doing a lot of contacts and just talking with people in the streets. Hopefully we can find a couple solid people to teach. we will see this week what happens. 

We had a pretty fun P day the other day. we went to the dunes on the beach as a zone and messed around out there. I invited Marcelo and Julian to come with us. The are 2 of the 4 young men down here and we have been trying to reactivate them. They have the same ages as my brothers so i feel like they are my brothers. I invited them because i remember when i was at home waiting to go on my mission with no firends the missionaries from back home invited me to do stuff with them so i wanted to pay it forward. They dont ever get the chance to be around other mormon kids so it was cool that they could see how things can be for them in the future. We all had a really good time together. 

Well the work goes on here. I feel like i am just sowing a lot of seed to be harvested in the future but i am fine with that. I know that I probably wont see a lot of sucess in numbers while i am here but the other day in church i was thinking about how amazing it will be to see in the future and on the other side of the veil how my work went here. I feel good because im working my hardest to do whats prepared for me now in this moment and because of that im tranquilo.

Elder Whitaker