"I can't describe the feeling I have right now....My heart is torn...."

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

Well It has been a good week. Since the mission conference that we had last week I made the goal to commit somebody to read the Book of Mormon in a contact in the street everyday for the rest of my mission and I have been doing it. We have seen some miracles and for an area that haves't had new investigators for a while.  We had 5 new people to teach this last week with another couple that we have appointments with for this next week. Im glad to say that I am finishing strong. The other day in sacrament meeting I was praying and talking with God about my mission and I felt a peace come over me, like my heavenly father was telling me that He is proud of me and accepts my work i have done here.

I don´t even know what to say. I cant believe this is my last week and my last letter home. I cant describe the feeling

This sweet little family made a Ty a "going away" cake.  

I have right now. My heart is torn and I will never had my heart together in one place again. I have loved seriving as a missionary of the true and restored Church of Jesus Christ. On my mission I have really come to know Him Jesus Christ). The only way you can come to know him is through serving Him and that is what I am doing. I´m so grateful for the change that He has made in me. I have found who I am serving, my brothers and sisters here in Argentina. I have enjoyed bearing my testimony to everyone of the truth that I know by the power of the holy spirit. I want everyone to know that I know that this message is true. The reason I desire that is because my life has been so blessed and i know it has the power to change anybody´s life. It isn´t a message to destroy the faith of others, it is a message that builds upon what we already have. God still speaks to his children, personally throught prayer, and to all his children though living prophets and apostles. It is a message of love, that God loves us way too much to leave us alone on this world. It is a message of hope, hope that we can change and return to our Father´s presence. It is a message of love, That Christ loved and loves us enough to die for us and because of that we can feel his love everyday. It is a love that is stonger than death, adversity, trials, and sorrow. I am so grateful that I have felt this love and that I have been able to convey this love to my brothers and sisters here. I love them so much. I am so grateful for the Gosple of Jesus Chirst. I am happy because of Him. 

Ty & some of his companions

Well this is it. I have finished this mission, but I know God has more in store for me. I´m excited to see you all again. Im grateful for all the sacrafices that many of you have done to help me be out here. I thank you all and I know that the people here would thank you as well. Im grateful for all the support I have recieved from you all. Im grateful to have such an amazing family. Being away two years really makes you realize how great your family is.  I love you all. See you all next week.

Love, Elder Whitaker

"I love the people here so much!"

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

I had a great week this week. Im loving the mission to the end. Its weird knowing that my time is running down so i have been doing everything i can. this last week i probably talked with 100 different people in the street. We had a conference with Elder Walter F. Gonzales a general athourity and the area president and he taught us a lot, especailly about the book of mormon. Since then I have been able to give a Book of Mormon to somebody everyday and commit them to reading it. I have faith that even if i dont get to see what happens with them that if they really read this book that some time in the future they will join the Church. 

I have been enjoying my time out here. I have been writing lots of letter to say good bye to a lot of people in my other areas and it is making remember how blessed I have been to have met such great people! I love the people here so much! I know that the Lord will look over them. Im so grateful for my mission.

Well I have short time but i will be writing a good last letter next week! I love you all!

Elder Whitaker

"I got proposed to by the daughter of a family we contacted in the street...."

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

well this week was full of adventures! the time is going way to fast at this point now but im loving it! I am trying to get everything i can out of it! Well i just made a list of some stuff that happened to me this week so here it goes:

well my chain came off my bike while i was on an avenue and when i put my weight on my pedal to go i lost my balance and i body slammed a parked car so that was fun. i almost made it 24 months with out a bike accident.

We are now doing family home evenings with members and having them invite a friend thats not a member or a less active member and we had some good times with that. With one family for the game we had I got to play air hockey for the first time since i left so that was fun! also we had our converts teach the lesson in another family home evening and it was awesome! they are such studs. they have weeks being members and they already teach lessons and stuff.

some lady that is always trying to make us give her 5 pesos called us over like this, "little boys come over and fix my water pipe!" and being good missionaries we went to help her but it was a pipe that we wernt going to be able to attach without shutting off the water. we told her but she was like, "no i have done this like 10 times just push harder!" and we are like, "tranquilo lady" but we kept helping her but finally she gave up and let us go back to work after 20 minutes. 

I got proposed to by the daughter of a family we contacted in the street. Its an interesting story that i will tell you all whe i get back because i dont have time to write it.

This week we also had a bunch of awesome lessons. We were guided to the right place at the right time. Those are my favorite times on the mission, when the spirit guides you and you know you are exactly where you need to be. We were able to help a brother whose nephew had died and was buried the morning we found him, the daughter of a member of the ward who had distanced herself from the church, the bishop when he was passing through a hard time and other families as well just in the moment they needed us. We were able to share a message about christ with them and provide them with the help they needed. Thats what i love about the mission. 

Well that was my week this week! I love you all!

Have a good week!

Elder Whitaker

"Sometimes it's not necessary to do what you love, but more important to love what you do...."

hola mi familia y mis amigos!

hows it going? well its kinda weird writing this because I only have a month left now. within 3 letters I´ll be back with you all. the time flies huh?

These lsat two weeks have been good. I have really learned a lot. The circumstances in which I am in are the same as they were 2 months ago, but I am happier and I feel good about what I am doing. I´m not going to lie, this area is hard. I have never had to try so hard to find somebody to teach, but I am enjoying it. Sometimes its not necesary to do what you love, but its more important to love what you do, no matter what it is that God sends you to do.

I have been reading the Book of Mormon with the intention to finish it again before I come home and I am amazed by the missionaries that are described. It wasnt easy for them either but what has impressed me is that they never stopped. That is my gaol right now. I have made the goal to share my testimony and my love with every person that God gives me the chance to speak with and I feel good. If they accept it or not, I want everybody to know that I know that our loving heavenly father has a plan for us, that through Christ we can have peace, that this is the restored church of Jesus Chirst and that it is perfect. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that we have living prphets today. I dont know because I proved it, nor because I´m inteligent. I know because I have felt the holy spirit testify to my heart that it is true.

I know because i have seen the fruits in my life. I am happy. I don´t have time to think about myself and I´m happy. I know because i have seen the fruits in other peopls lives. Mauro and Yesica, the couple that we baptized, they are so happy. They share their testimonies with me all the time. I have seen what their life was and what it is now. I know. 

Thats why Im happy. Friends and family, I don´t have a lot of time left being a missionary, but in this last little time I have, I want all you to know what I know. and because I love you I want you all to at least consider what I am saying. find out for yourself if what I say is true. thats my only invitation to the people here in argentina. I love you all. Thanks for your letters. We will be in touch. Have a good week!

Elder Whitaker

Hola mis amigos y mi familia,

Como les va? Everything is going well down here. I just began my last transfer so thats kinda weird but its like the scoreboard clock in a lacrosse game. I am in the 4th quarter with 3 minutes left on the clock to do something great.

we had a good week! to start it off with some of the adventures we had:

i got to help a family carry 5 dead lambs into their house so that they could cut it up and sell it to their neighbors so that was legit.

A family from peru down here made us serviche which is raw fish cooked with lemon juice and picante. the acid kills the bacteria so its safe to eat and its awesome!

We found some new investigators. The husband is from Ukrain and has a sick story. He doesnt read very well in spanish so we found him a book of mormon in russian so in the lessons we show him what to read in his russian book or mormon and then we talk about it after so the lessons are kinda cool.

I also had to go to the DMV of argentina for the documents that make me legal here with all of my buddies from the mission that finish with me so we had a good time seeing eachother after a while. it was the first time i enjoyed waiting in line in a government building.

well for some of the spiritual stuff:

We had a baptism! XXXX and XXXX  XXXXX were baptized this last saturday! It was so amazing! It was the first baptism in this ward this year. They have 3 kids that arent of age yet that will be raised in the gosple now too. It Is so cool to baptize a family. That is really what the gosple of Jesus Christ is about, making eternal families. They are so excited and so prepared. A cool story about them. They lived on the other side of La Plata next to my old area in romero but for reasons of safety they came to villa elvira. Elder McKean and I began teaching them before a month had passed of them living in their new house. Their house right now has a ton of problems so in 2 weeks they will be moving back to another house back where they lived before. They were sent here to villa elvira to get to know us so we could teach them and be baptized and now they are going back. God Works miracles.

We are working hard and doing our best to find people eve though it is a hard area and God is opening doors. Im grateful for his help. By ourselves, we arent anything special, but with God we are working miracles. Im grateful for all the help He has given me my whole mission. I only hope to keep being a good intstrument in His hands.

I hope you all have a good week!

Elder Whitaker

"...God puts people in our lives so that we can touch their hearts".

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Como estan todos? I have had a good last couple of weeks. there has been some tough stuff but really after counting my blessings i realize that i have had a really fun week and a lot of little miracles. 

Well some fun stuff first: well i burned my bum with the bidet on an exchange in another area and i got all wet so that was funny.

I had to get an ingrown toenail taken out and the got out the powersander so i felt like i was in dumb and dumber so that made me laugh quite a bit.

My comp has decided he wants to sing in all of the contacts we do. so its like year round christmas caroling. so thats fun i guess.

i got pretty good at shooting my trash into the trash basket from the balcony so im feeling like a champ.

I had an exchange with one of my best freinds in the mission elder jackson from Encinitas, california this week and it was awesome! We had fun and had some really good talks that insired me for after the mission.

Also I got interviewed by some people making a documentary about technology in argentina so im going to be famous!

For some spiritual stuff:

This last week i got to interview a family to get baptized that I found and taught their first lesson to them 2 years ago when i started in Villa Montoro. They remembered me and everything even though i had almost forgotten about them. It was a blessing from my Heavenly Father that I could be there to complete the cycle. How great of a blessing it is to know that seeds i planted a long time ago, God helped them grow and i could witness it almost 2 years later.

We are having trouble finding new people but the other day i felt inspired to ring s certain doorbell and we found a really receptive family. Hopefully we can begin teaching them soon.

We have been helping a 18 year old kid who was less active come back to church. He has begun to accompany us to appointments and to our P-day activities and he told us today on the way to the activity that he is in the process of filling out his missionary papers to go on a mission!

The work can be hard but God puts people in our lives so that we can touch their hearts.

Spiritual thought: "Finishers Wanted" -Thomas S Monson July 1972 Ensign

Courage becomes a living andattractive virtue when it is regarded not as a willingness to die manfully, but the determination to live decently.Have the courage—

“To dream the impossible dream;

To fight the unbeatable foe;

To bear with unbearable sorrow:

To run where the brave dare not go.

“To right the unrightable wrong;

To love, pure and chaste, from afar;

To try when your arms are too weary

To reach the unreachable star.” ¹

—and you will thus become a finisher.

Its a good thought. have a good week everyone!

Elder Whitaker

Ty and some friends he's met on his mission

Ty with all the missionaries in his zone in Buenos ares East

"...God puts people in our lives so that we can touch their hearts".

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Como estan todos? I have had a good last couple of weeks. there has been some tough stuff but really after counting my blessings i realize that i have had a really fun week and a lot of little miracles. 

Well some fun stuff first: well i burned my bum with the bidet on an exchange in another area and i got all wet so that was funny.

I had to get an ingrown toenail taken out and the got out the powersander so i felt like i was in dumb and dumber so that made me laugh quite a bit.

My comp has decided he wants to sing in all of the contacts we do. so its like year round christmas caroling. so thats fun i guess.

i got pretty good at shooting my trash into the trash basket from the balcony so im feeling like a champ.

I had an exchange with one of my best freinds in the mission elder jackson from Encinitas, california this week and it was awesome! We had fun and had some really good talks that insired me for after the mission.

Also I got interviewed by some people making a documentary about technology in argentina so im going to be famous!

For some spiritual stuff:

This last week i got to interview a family to get baptized that I found and taught their first lesson to them 2 years ago when i started in Villa Montoro. They remembered me and everything even though i had almost forgotten about them. It was a blessing from my Heavenly Father that I could be there to complete the cycle. How great of a blessing it is to know that seeds i planted a long time ago, God helped them grow and i could witness it almost 2 years later.

We are having trouble finding new people but the other day i felt inspired to ring s certain doorbell and we found a really receptive family. Hopefully we can begin teaching them soon.

We have been helping a 18 year old kid who was less active come back to church. He has begun to accompany us to appointments and to our P-day activities and he told us today on the way to the activity that he is in the process of filling out his missionary papers to go on a mission!

The work can be hard but God puts people in our lives so that we can touch their hearts.

Spiritual thought: "Finishers Wanted" -Thomas S Monson July 1972 Ensign

Courage becomes a living and attractive virtue when it is regarded not as a willingness to die manfully, but the determination to live decently.Have the courage—

“To dream the impossible dream;

To fight the unbeatable foe;

To bear with unbearable sorrow:

To run where the brave dare not go.

“To right the unrightable wrong;

To love, pure and chaste, from afar;

To try when your arms are too weary

To reach the unreachable star.” ¹

—and you will thus become a finisher.

Its a good thought. have a good week everyone!

Elder Whitaker