"It's special to be here serving the King of Kings on the day of his birth..."

The son of a lady he baptized.

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Espero que tuiveran una feliz navidad! I know i did. Im kinda sad this was my last christmas out here serving in the mission field. Its special to be here serving the King of Kings on the the day of his birth. I had a sweet chrsitmas! on the 23rd we were together as a zone and we went chirstmas carrolling in an outdoor mall sort of thing. It was super sick. I was a little sick so i wasnt singing but i was going around talkin with everyone that passed by to teach them a little bit of our message. It was super awesome. 

the main party here is on christmas eve at 12. It felt more like the forth of july because at 12 everybody starts cheering and lighting off some huge fireworks. We went up on the roof of the

members house what rents to us and watched all of the fireworks. it was legit. It felt like the villa was a war zone hahaha.

Ty enjoys playing sports with the youth.

on the 25th we worked and visited people which was fun and also i got to skype with my family which was awesome. Its weird how time has passed and everybody has changed!

It was so awesome to be teaching people these past days about the gift that was given us when our heavenly father gave us his son!

At the ward Christmas party

We also got to do an open house for a church in our zone which was way fun! I was in the reference thing and we got like 90 references for the missionaries which is super legit! It is fun working together with the missionaries of our zone. I am so grateful for my buddies I have made out here, missionaries and members.

Well I love you all and hope you all have a happy 2015!

Elder Whitaker

"I want to challenge everyone to look for a way to remember Christ this Christmas..."

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

como les va? feliz navidad from here in argentina. I hope all of you are enjoying nice cold weather up there because its like an oven down here in buenos aires. We had a water fight today for a zone activity because its like the closest thing to swimming we can do hahaha. We also played soccer a lot. In this zone i play every week and im getting a lot better. The latino want me on their team now so im feeling pretty good haha.

This week was pretty good. We had a ton of activities for chirstmas. We had the branch dinner which was awesome. We had a solid turn out! like 130 people went! we had a bunch of fun. The members here are the best! Also we had a show called la Noche de Luz. Its kinda like sing noel. It was for the whole stake and it was awesome! the whole stake center was full and we had some people we are teaching and some less actives go! for all of you who know my love for singing and programs where you have to sing, you will all be suprised to know that i had to do a solo part. I think i sing better in spanish haha

we have been having some good lessons. A cool story, like 3 months ago i did a contact with this one lady that went really well but she said she didnt live in that house and was going to leave so i never saw her again. Later like about 2 weeks ago we did another contact in this house. i had forgotten about the lady i had met there before but she wasnt there and we started to visit with the family and then this week this lñady that i did the contact with a long time ago was over there and asked for a book of mormon and said she wanted to start going to church! I was stoked to see that our past efforts are never wasted. We never know what consequences will have our actions in the future.

we have also been teaching the family of our buddy that got killed. Its super sad because the dad is super bumed out and doesnt know to do with himself because the laws arent doing justice, so we have been working pretty hard with them and have built up a lot of confidence with him. This kid we were teaching was making a lot of progress and have left drugs and everything and had even told his dad that one of his goals was to pass the sacrament again. The family is inactive and go to another church but with this they are starting to soften their hearts and see how the plan of salvation that out loving heavenly father prepared for us can bring them peace.

well I hope all of you have an awesome christmas and that you can all remember the real meaning of christmas. I want to challenge everyone to look for a way to remember christ this christmas by serving someone else or sharing your testimony.. i know thats the best gift we can give to christ, after all that he has given us.

Feliz Navidad!

Elder Whitaker

A beautiful family Ty was able to teach and baptize.

The grandmotherly lady who is Ty's landlord made him put a raw onion on his nightstand to ward off illness.

"A little Christmas gift for me right there..."

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

haha lo siento for not writing for a while. I have been super busy and I havent had time for the big letter. but this week i do. These last couple weeks have been awesome! 

well for starters yesterday we had a baptism which was super awesome. Ady has 27 years and two little kids. Her husband iwas a less active member but we started teaching them and she was able to be baptized yesterday! and now they are working towards the goal to get sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. Its super awesome!

We have also been working a lot with the youth. I hit it off really well with some of the youth here that are about my age or a little older. they have been teaching me soccer and stuff. They didnt really attend church too much before but recently they have been there every week. We had a family home evening with one of their families the other day and he told me that I had helped him recieve his answer that he needs to go on a mission. He said i remind him a lot of the elder that baptized him. It was a super cool experience about how God puts the right people in the right place. I didn´t even talk to him about going on a mission but from seeing mi forma de ser (i forgot how to say that in english, translate it) he got his answer. Im super stoked for him. there are also a couple others that want to go do visits with us now which is awesome!

Other good news. we were doing some contacts the otherday and i found a homie, juan from back home (almost), tiajuana mexico. and even better he has a taco stand! i was so excited because i havent had good mexican tacos in 14 months. so dope. us mexicans have to stick together.

also we had a sweet sone conference this week. It was way fun because they put two zones together. I had my good buddies and ex comps Elder Flake, Elder Granados, and Elder Bastias there with me so it was way fun to be with all of them. We had to do a chirstmas performance and i was the angel gabriel. I made my own costume and it was pretty legit for only having a box of book of mormons, tape, and some wire. I would send pics but it appears that my memory has some kind of virus so i dont know if i will be able to rescue those pics. 

Also talking with Elder Granados, my first comp down in La Costa, I found out that one of the guys that lived in a tent that we were teaching got baptized. He went up mto capital to right some wrongs to be fully repented and never came back but i found out that he came back about a month after i left and he was baptized and married! His new wife got baptized because of him too so that like 2 baptisms right there. I was super bummed that he never came back but now Im super hapy to know why! a little christmas gift for me right there!

well i hope all is well back home! I love you all!

Elder Whitaker