"It has been so cool to see the changes in them".

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

¿como están todos? I hope you guys are all having a good spring break! Im enjoying fall down here in Argentina. It definitly cooled off a bunch. Im going to start freezing in a bit!

Well this week was awesome! we were able to have the baptism of norma and Ian! it was sweet. WHen they came out of the water Norma said, " this is the best choice I have made!" It has been so cool to see the changes in them! 

Well im beginning my last week with Elder Altamirano. He goes home to chile next week because his 2 years are up. It is weird to see that. Its crazy that now i only have 6 months left. Especially knowing that I´ll be attending BYU Hawaii and kinda knowing what will be happening after the mission its kinda weird!

Well I hope everyone has a fantastic Easter this weekend! I hope everyone can take the time to pause and remember why we have Easter.  The Church made a video about Christ and what he did for us. Its short, like 3 min but its super good! watch it! This message has changed everything in my life for the better. I know its true. Here is the link.

http://www.mormon.org/easter

Have a good week!

Elder Whitaker

This sweet boy's face is so precious.  It makes me so happy Ty is in Argentina, serving the people there!

"...I know this doesn't happen because of me or my companion, but because God is helping us out".

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Todo tranqui aqui en romero. The work is going well. We have been having a good time down here. This sunday Norma and Ian are going to get baptized. They already had their baptisimal interview and everything. It has been such a blessing to have been able to find and teach them. They are examples to me. They are so ready to believe. Our only stuggle with Norma was that she didnt want to bother asking God if this was His church because she already believed it was and didnt want to bother Him. We taught them the word of wisdom the other day (the commandment from God that we shouldn´t drink, smoke, use drugs, or drink coffee or tea) and the next day she had donated all of her tea to her job. How awesome is that?

As we have been watching the conversion process in them we have also been able to see other people make changes in their lives as well! We have 5 other people committed to be baptized and a bunch of new people that we are going to begin teaching this next week. It has been awesome to see the growth of this area. I love being able to be a part of it. I kow that this doesn´t happen because of me or my companion, but because God is helping us out. 

Well the 19th was one of the hottest days i had had all summer, and the 21st was one of the first times i have been cold since i left La Costa. The 21st fall started and it feels like it jumped from summer to winter in a heart beat. It made me get sick. i was super congested and i didnt have any decongestant medicine so I had the idea to eat a super hot pepper to loosen everything up. It worked but it killed me in the process. I think my mom will put up the pics. at least it worked though haha.

spiritual thought for the week: Mosiah 16: 6-9

6 And now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption.

7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

 9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.

We are getting close to easter. Its a great time to remember the sacrafice and resurection of the Savior. Without Him we would be without hope but because of Him we can overcome all things.

Que tengan una buena semana!

Elder Whitaker

Ty & his Chilean comp, who will be going home next week, having completed 2 years.

from Ty "we made a wall of cockroaches that we have killed so that the other cockroaches that try to enter have to climb over their comrades".

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

I got to capture an eagle thanks to my ealge scout and half mexican powers.

hows it going? we have had a solid week out here in romero. its been super productive. We have a lot of perople progressing towards baptism. we have two investigators, Norma and Ian that will be getting their baptisimal interviews this week! hey are awesome. In our class on sunday we were talking about prophets and she bore her testimony about how she knew that God had sent us because when we found her she was in a depression and since she met us her life has changed. It was touching to hear her testimony. She and her son should be getting baptized the 29th.

We were going downtown to get a training about doing an open house for a church down here and we got there early. We found some guys that werent members of the church behind the church playing on the churches basketball court. my comp is from chile but he knows how to play so we went and played with them for like 15 min before the training and it was super fun and we got 4 new people to teach out of it. Its for another area but hey you got to play basketball for a good cause. It was also way fun because i havent played basketball in a ton!

Well a lot of people in our ward down here are passing through some tough times and I was thinking the other day about how I can help them. A scripture came to my mind that i was able to see in a different way.

 its in 2 nephi 25 verse 26

 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.

as i was thinking i relaized that christ is the source to which we may look in everything, not only for remision from our sins. I know that it is true. through christ we can really solve any problem we have and recieve the consolation and comfort that we need. If we can take time to pause, look at or situation and look for the way we can move closer to chirst i know that we will have the strength we need to overcome our trials.

well i hope you all have a good week!

Elder Whitaker 

My boy!!!

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Como andan? I hope all is well up there. Everything is awesome down here in romero! We had a really solid week! 

Well a new transfer just started so a bunch of friends left my zone but some friends came as well. Now my district is basically all sister missionaries except for the zone leaders. Its a different dynamic now but they are all great missionaries. 

This last week we finally started connecting. We found 10 new people to teach this week and 6 of them are preparing to get baptized in addition to the couple that wants to get married and baptized. It is awesome to see the people get excited about this message. A lot of times we just work and work and sometimes it doesnt go any where. I enjoy the work and i see the change that happens in me but sometimes its sad to see that all your work falls on people that dont want to open their hearts. There is an even greater joy when you see other people recieving the blessings!

Of the people we are teaching that are progressing a lot we have the family Kallus. They are from paraguay and are basically already members. The husband is a member that was inactive and his wife isnt a member. Recently they have basically come to church every sunday since we started working with them and they are working on their papers so that they can get married soon so that sister kallus can get baptized. ITs awesome beause every time we go to thier house we see how excited they are and they always tell us about their expiriences they had during the week sharing the gosple.

We also found invited to be baptized that family that we invited to the family sports activity that we have every friday. the Mom´s name is Norma. she showed up with her son and her nieces and they loved it. At first they wern´t interested because they are catholic and didnt want to hear about our beliefs but seeing all the famalies at the activity they really liked it and when we showed up at their house they had a bunch of questions about being baptized so now they are preparing to follow the savior as well.

The last family we have been working with was a reference from a less active sister, los Perunetti. The mom is a little closed for hard things she has had to experience in the past but she let us in and we taught her and her kids. she has a daughter thats 16 and sons that are 14 and 11. The kids want to be baptized as well but the mom is still a little skeptical. but the kids are excited.

Well i dont write a ton about the people i teach sometimes because some stuff is more personal but I wanted you guys to know about these awesome 3 families and have you guys keep them in your prayers so that they can keep on going in their path. I know i write a lot about stories and interesting stuff that happens but if you were to ask me what is the best part of being here in argentina i wouldn´t tell you about my adventure (although i have some pretty legit adventures) I would tell you about all the amazing people i have met. More than sight seeing I was sent down here to help people i knew before coming down to live on earth. There is a special joy that comes from fufilling my promise to help the people i promised to help find the gosple. I love it.

Have a good week.

Elder Whitaker

A little time off-

(p.s i also helped capture a wounded eagle this week. pictures to come)

He finally found his favorite thing:  PB&J

Ty with his district.  He is a District Leader

The only way the world is going to change is one person at a time...."

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

como están? this week has been pretty fun. I don´t know if I already told you guys but Elder Russo got transfered to La Costa and now we have a mini missionary who is serving till the end of the transfer. The mini we got is Bryan Barretto, a guy i was encouraging to go on a mission from KM 26! Its cool to see him get involved with the work. because I´m his district leader, I got to go on exchanges with him. It was fun being his comp for the day.

We had a bunch of people show up at church the other day that are getting to know the church so that was good. One of them was a contact that we did before our friday sports activity. We stopped by and started talking with her and her family and at first she was like, "No im catholic i dont want to talk with you guys" but she ended up liking our message and came to the activity in the evening and then was at church on sunday and we still havent gotten to teach her officially yet so hopefully we can keep going with that.

I didn´t tell you guys but that one woman i baptized in my first week in romero never got confirmed a member nor recieved the holy ghost because her ex husband started threatening to kill her and other people so she escaped and disapeared. We were bummed but we just got a call last sunday from some other missionaries on the other side of the mission that she has been attending church there for the last 3 weeks and that she is going to get confirmed over there when we send them the batisimal record. she is a stud!

spritual thought: “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment" - Ezra Taft Benson

The only way the World is going to change is one person at a time as the come unto Christ. I have seen it down here in Argentina

Have a good week amigos.

Elder Whitaker

My boy is sleepy from working so hard!

"It's really important to always be grateful...."

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

Well this week was a good one! We re still working a lot to find new people but we have met some cool people that are interested. We have been working a lot with the less actives to help them out. I´m not going to lie at the beginning of the week i was a little down because i was comparing this area to Km 26 a lot and I was just kinda mad that there wasnt as much progress as in my other area. I was talking about it with Elder Altamirano the other day in weekly planning and he kinda made me realize that i was looking at things wrong. Maybe its not the same as in Kilometro but he pointed out the sucesses we have had together so far. Its really important to always be grateful for what God has done for you and I needed to open up my eyes but since that moment I have been enjoying my time here in Romero a lot more. 

Well some fun stuff... a member gave us soome milk from his cow but my stomach wasnt ready for it so i spent the morning en el baño. we also played dodgeball today and i accidentally face shotted like 5 people. it reminded me of the good old days of mutual playing dodgeball. hahaha it is the first time i have played in forever. 

spiritual thought : Dieter F. Uchtdorf - "We can choose to be grateful, no matter what. When we are grateful to God in our circumstances, we can experience gentle peace in the midst of tribulation. In grief, we can still lift up our hearts in praise. In pain, we can glory in Christ’s Atonement. In the cold of bitter sorrow, we can experience the closeness and warmth of heaven’s embrace.We sometimes think that being grateful is what we do after our problems are solved, but how terribly shortsighted that is. How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain?" 

something that has helped me a lot this week.

Elder Whitaker

"If we build upon the rock of Christ...nothing can go permanently wrong."

hola mi familia y mis amigos,

It was an awesome week! we had a bunch of stuff going on. im pretty dead from this last week but it was awesome. As far as the work goes we have been looking for a lot of new people. there are a ton of people that the elders were working with when i got here that arent going anywhere so we are trying to help them a little and mainly trying to find a lot more. We have some solid people we have found but the bummer is that nobody is married! its the worst haha but we have 2 people planning to get married this month which should be pretty legit. We had an open house for the stake center here in the city of La Plata. it went really well! open houses work super well for finding people.

The find of Ty's life...cereal.

Some interesting stuff that happened this week. We went to give a blessing to a little girl that just had to have a super dangerous surgery. I though I was super scared of hospitals but it turns out that elder altamirano and elder russo dont like them more. They both fainted in there. I was pretty proud of myself for staying on my feet. I also found a 7 pound back of corn flakes so i am set for breakfast for a while. Its probably like the best inevention of argnetina. Im so happy i got sent to a place in the world where cereal exists! Also elder russo met a bolivian lady that has super hot peppers so we have been cooking spicy. My comp from chile was eating and crying at the same time because it was too spicy for him but he was super hungry it was pretty funny but since then we have been a little easier on the picante. 

We also got to go the the temple of Buenos Aires this week! it was so awesome! it was my first time being able to go to the temple in a year! It is such a blessing to be able to go! the peace that one feels inside is incredible! 

Spiritual thought for the week: Dontrine & Covenants 6:33-37

 33 Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.

34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

35 Behold, I do not condemn you; go your ways and sin no more; perform with soberness the work which I have commanded you.

36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.

 37 Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

Something I was thinking about this week. I think it can help us all in whatever situation we are in to just remember this. Its one of my favorite scriptures. If we build upon the rock of christ by keeping his commandments nothing can go permanently wrong. 

Elder Whitaker