Hello Family!!
Happy Nevada Day! My comp thought it was very funny that I told him Happy Nevada Day before happy Halloween, both great days.
Answers to questions, we eat every day except for Mondays at 2 with a member. So we get to know the families in our ward pretty good. About the shoes, they are going downhill, but I haven't sent a picture of them because they aren't that bad yet. I don't think it is necessary to buy some for me because I can do that here. There are lots of places that that would be easy especially in this area. We are right in the middle of Monterrey and everything is in our zone. I wasn´t exactly sure if we could get the shoes free from the Kater Shop - I thought they told me we could but I'm not sure. If they can, I will send you a picture in a couple months to get them.
Changes went well. I am still with Elder Riley. I am very surprised about that because he is ready and has been ready for the last while to be senior companion. However, we will continue to tear it up here. If you want to see our house this is the address, Articulo 123 number 1804 Colonia Progresso.
This week was a pretty tough one. Things just had a hard time working out for us. We didn't have a baptism but there were lots of people that came to church and there were lots of members also. Sacrament meeting was actually full for once and everybody was singing. It was the primary program here and I enjoyed it a lot. Our investigators enjoyed it more, Irma`s family went again. They love us. I hope it’s alright that I invite most of our progressing investigators to our house, they actually said they were going to come. I would say that they are the most promising that could use some prayers. Irma (mom) Carlos(11) Cecilia(8) Abner (6) Sandy(2).
I am about to finish Jesus the Christ. I love that book, highly recommend it. I am wondering if I should send the sweet copy home so you can send it to Mariah again. I don't know if she had time to read it or not when she had it. I don't really want to give it up but it is something from the family if you know what I mean.
We had a cool experience in a lesson this week. I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and I have started to read it lots more in the house at night, its especially useful the tough days. When we come home and I am stressed about something that happened or something isn’t right I usually say a prayer and let the Book of Mormon fall open where it will and I will begin to study. I have found it is a great way to know what the Lord wants me to. I have suggested it to investigators before, but I’ve never done it in a lesson until this week when we did it with Irma. Irma said the prayer and then I explained what we were going to do, she opened the book and we read 3 Nefi 9 14-22, pretty powerful. I'll leave you guys to read it and maybe experiment on your own. That was something pretty great that happened this week.
As far as Christmas stuff goes I would really just appreciate the stuff that I've already asked, and stories that I could read that have a spiritual twist to them. Some of these might be stories from my ancestors if you know what I mean. I don't really need anything except a blender and waffle iron but you guys don't need to worry about that.
Thanks for all you do for me.
I love you guys!!!
Elder Waite
Sunday, November 6, 2011
October 24, 2011
Hello Family,Mariana and Alan aren't really our priorities any more, but we had a really cool lady come to church yesterday with her 4 kids (who love us) her name is Irma. They are having a really tough time because the dad just abandoned them and went away (it is pretty safe to say he is not a very good person) and in all reality it is good he is gone but they are struggling with money. They have a good house and car but in one of the lessons we had the daughter prayed and sincerely thanked God for the food they had to eat. She loved church and is excited to see the primary program next week (another miracle - when she was leaving the church we invited her to come next week also, and I said that it was the program from the kids. But the thing was, I didn't know that it was coming up or anything, just that one lady had told me the kids had a practice for something during the week. Just another testimony of how the Lord works and tells the people what they need to hear through us).
Elder Riley is 99% sure he is leaving, next week. I'll probably tell you who is my new comp. Elder Riley will be missed. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I took out 1500 pesos from my account, the machine was having problems and I'm pretty worried about it. I didn’t want that much but now I’ll just save and not take any more out. I'm telling you this so that you can check my account because this is the first ATM that has given me trouble. I hope they don’t mess with my account.
I would enjoy to see Maren’s play. I hope you all are great.
I love you,
Elder Waite
PS - I've been thinking and reading a lot about my ancestors from the little stories that I have and would sure appreciate more little stories or big stories. If you find time you could just email them and I can print them here.
October 19, 2011
Hello Family!!!
Well, I totally forgot about the Halloween Party even though I think you told me last week. I'm glad you all had fun. I had fun here just so you know... Actually this last week we were working our little tails off but sadly we had no immediate results of a baptism this week. Sorry I haven’t sent any pictures to you lately but there aren´t very many good places to write here that have the thing to send pictures. The shed looks sweet, I like the I beam Dad.
This week we are working with various people. Surprisingly, two of them are students; Alan, I'm pretty sure I already told you about, and the other is named Mariana. I think I like teaching students more than any other people - they are so much more involved in the lessons, they treat the homework like regular homework and actually do it. The only problem is they sometimes like to party on the weekends and wake up on a completely different side of the city. We almost dropped Alan because of that but we are going to give him a couple more chances. Mariana is an angel that doesn’t have those same problems but is loved by her family and is just busy a lot. We gave her a Book of Mormon in the first visit and have been teaching all of the lessons with it. This has been one of my goals to do in the mission, to teach every single visit with the Book of Mormon. Now we just need to keep following up.
I sent you a picture of a conference we had with Elder Johnson and I am also going to send the email from the mission last week because it has something cool in it about Elder Riley and I.
I hope the best for you all.
Love from Mexico,
Elder Waite
Well, I totally forgot about the Halloween Party even though I think you told me last week. I'm glad you all had fun. I had fun here just so you know... Actually this last week we were working our little tails off but sadly we had no immediate results of a baptism this week. Sorry I haven’t sent any pictures to you lately but there aren´t very many good places to write here that have the thing to send pictures. The shed looks sweet, I like the I beam Dad.
This week we are working with various people. Surprisingly, two of them are students; Alan, I'm pretty sure I already told you about, and the other is named Mariana. I think I like teaching students more than any other people - they are so much more involved in the lessons, they treat the homework like regular homework and actually do it. The only problem is they sometimes like to party on the weekends and wake up on a completely different side of the city. We almost dropped Alan because of that but we are going to give him a couple more chances. Mariana is an angel that doesn’t have those same problems but is loved by her family and is just busy a lot. We gave her a Book of Mormon in the first visit and have been teaching all of the lessons with it. This has been one of my goals to do in the mission, to teach every single visit with the Book of Mormon. Now we just need to keep following up.
I sent you a picture of a conference we had with Elder Johnson and I am also going to send the email from the mission last week because it has something cool in it about Elder Riley and I.
I hope the best for you all.
Love from Mexico,
Elder Waite
October 10, 2011
CONGRATS MARIAH ON THE BAPTISM!!!!! ¿¡¿SHED!?!? WHAT SHED??
I am glad to hear that everything is normal at home. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!!!!! That's weird that you are 17, you'll be 18 when I get back home - even more weird. I hope you had a good birthday.
This is a really weird time of my mission for me. I think the hardest and weirdest times for me have been when I am about to hit a marker in time, for example, when I had six months time seemed to go slow. Sometimes I get the feeling that time just stops, or that it just doesn't exist. At this mile marker I am enjoying myself a lot more. I think I am enjoying this time the most that I have my whole mission. I love having gringo companions, we are both focused on the work and finally having results like they should be. The area I am in is golden, with a ton of golden people that have been baptized and are getting baptized. I hope Elder Riley and I stay together another transfer, who knows, we've got two more weeks in this one still.
We had a sweet baptism this week, Brayan and Jimena Vargas. They are really cool. The mom got baptized when she was a kid and we just started to talk to them. Brayan is pretty neat. We started talking to him and won his confidence helping him with his English homework. We were just talking to Brayan at the first, then Jimena started showing a little interest also, then she was actually the one that talked Brayan into doing it this week.
Today we are going to go to Presidents house for dinner at around 8. We are going with a guy named Alan, he is 22 and going to school here in Monterrey. We are going with some of his friends, hopefully two will go.
This morning we went to the gym (there is a member in the ward that lets us go to his gym free) and after we went to eat breakfast with a sister in the ward. She loves us. She made us salsa en queso with churrizo and eggs with beans (what a surprise). Later she stared making us pancakes, and she made us some cinnamon tea. We ate the pancakes with Jam and condensed milk. It’s been a good day.
Good luck everyone!!
Love,
Elder Waite
I am glad to hear that everything is normal at home. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!!!!! That's weird that you are 17, you'll be 18 when I get back home - even more weird. I hope you had a good birthday.
This is a really weird time of my mission for me. I think the hardest and weirdest times for me have been when I am about to hit a marker in time, for example, when I had six months time seemed to go slow. Sometimes I get the feeling that time just stops, or that it just doesn't exist. At this mile marker I am enjoying myself a lot more. I think I am enjoying this time the most that I have my whole mission. I love having gringo companions, we are both focused on the work and finally having results like they should be. The area I am in is golden, with a ton of golden people that have been baptized and are getting baptized. I hope Elder Riley and I stay together another transfer, who knows, we've got two more weeks in this one still.
We had a sweet baptism this week, Brayan and Jimena Vargas. They are really cool. The mom got baptized when she was a kid and we just started to talk to them. Brayan is pretty neat. We started talking to him and won his confidence helping him with his English homework. We were just talking to Brayan at the first, then Jimena started showing a little interest also, then she was actually the one that talked Brayan into doing it this week.
Today we are going to go to Presidents house for dinner at around 8. We are going with a guy named Alan, he is 22 and going to school here in Monterrey. We are going with some of his friends, hopefully two will go.
This morning we went to the gym (there is a member in the ward that lets us go to his gym free) and after we went to eat breakfast with a sister in the ward. She loves us. She made us salsa en queso with churrizo and eggs with beans (what a surprise). Later she stared making us pancakes, and she made us some cinnamon tea. We ate the pancakes with Jam and condensed milk. It’s been a good day.
Good luck everyone!!
Love,
Elder Waite
October 3, 2011
¡¡¡¡¡¡¡HOLD ON!!!! Who is this guy that Hannah went to Homecoming with?? I've never seen him before. He looks a little like a thug, but Hannah looked happy enough. At least she had fun. Who did the football team play for homecoming? Did they win? Hope so. Hannah did you win at your game. Are you still running cross country?
Mom, that’s cool you went to Aunt Ann’s. I would like to get to know Seattle sometime. I have actually started to tell people that I am a Seahawks fan because they always ask me what team I like in football and they don’t know any college teams... the thing is I'm not sure I've ever even watched a full Seahawks game in my life. I have been thinking about Aunt Ann lots lately. She wrote me a letter, I hope everything goes well.
I loved every bit of General Conference, and am glad I am on a mission - otherwise I would have left the Priesthood session feeling about a foot tall. They talked really really strong (cough ...Elder Holland) but it was good because I left feeling very determined to do lots better in every aspect of life. I have never considered Elder Holland as one of my favorite apostles, which is weird because lots of people really like him. But now as a missionary we hear lots of things from him and I heard him on thanksgiving last year in the MTC so now he has a special place in my heart. I know we shouldn’t have favorites but now he is definitely up there. In case you are wondering my favorites are Elder Perry and Elder Oaks. Speaking of Elder Oaks the Sunday afternoon talk from him was amazing, that guy is pure doctrine. I didn’t get to hear Elder Perry.
We couldn't go to the Saturday sessions unless we had investigators. We had lots of people tell us that they would go with us but nobody did. Les dio flojera. Sunday we had a baptism planned, her name is Rosa. She thinks she is our mom, which is kind of creepy sometimes because she says weird stuff, but she feeds us all the time so it’s cool. She didn't want to get baptized but she finally consented and now she calls us her little angels (even more weird). We actually had two baptisms - the other was Vanessa, she is the one I told you about a while ago whose parents never let her get baptized. She is actually the niece of Rosa, and sister of Janeth who is the wife of Cesar (probably my coolest baptism). Vanessa doesn't live in our area but was always with Janeth when we taught her, so she comes here. Her mom works in our area, about 2 blocks from the church so she always comes to church here. Sunday the mom went to work but they told her there wasn't enough work for her so she got fired. She came to conference in time to hear President Monson... She felt so good after that she asked me what we would have to do to baptize Vanessa that day. Conveniently our Zone leader was right there and interviewed her and she got baptized also (THANK YOU PRES MONSON!!). I hope the mom will get baptized next week. It was a cool experience.
My time is running short which is a shame because I'm sort of in a typing mood. One last thing, Pres Romney has told us that it would be cool if you guys could write a letter to some of the recent converts, I have been thinking about this a lot with Cesar and family. This would be a great help to them because of the challenges that they have (by the way I have already invited them to the house when I come home). The battle that Cesar is having with the Word of wisdom is just starting and I know a letter would help him in the tough times. I was wondering if you could write them a letter with your testimonies or something in it. Their names are Cesar Roman, Janeth, Ares (7.5 years), Randy (3?), there is a baby but I don't remember his name. I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for all you do for me. I really love you guys. THANKS FOR THE PICTURES!!!!! I´ll wait for more... maybe from the hike or something.
Love,
Elder Waite
Mom, that’s cool you went to Aunt Ann’s. I would like to get to know Seattle sometime. I have actually started to tell people that I am a Seahawks fan because they always ask me what team I like in football and they don’t know any college teams... the thing is I'm not sure I've ever even watched a full Seahawks game in my life. I have been thinking about Aunt Ann lots lately. She wrote me a letter, I hope everything goes well.
I loved every bit of General Conference, and am glad I am on a mission - otherwise I would have left the Priesthood session feeling about a foot tall. They talked really really strong (cough ...Elder Holland) but it was good because I left feeling very determined to do lots better in every aspect of life. I have never considered Elder Holland as one of my favorite apostles, which is weird because lots of people really like him. But now as a missionary we hear lots of things from him and I heard him on thanksgiving last year in the MTC so now he has a special place in my heart. I know we shouldn’t have favorites but now he is definitely up there. In case you are wondering my favorites are Elder Perry and Elder Oaks. Speaking of Elder Oaks the Sunday afternoon talk from him was amazing, that guy is pure doctrine. I didn’t get to hear Elder Perry.
We couldn't go to the Saturday sessions unless we had investigators. We had lots of people tell us that they would go with us but nobody did. Les dio flojera. Sunday we had a baptism planned, her name is Rosa. She thinks she is our mom, which is kind of creepy sometimes because she says weird stuff, but she feeds us all the time so it’s cool. She didn't want to get baptized but she finally consented and now she calls us her little angels (even more weird). We actually had two baptisms - the other was Vanessa, she is the one I told you about a while ago whose parents never let her get baptized. She is actually the niece of Rosa, and sister of Janeth who is the wife of Cesar (probably my coolest baptism). Vanessa doesn't live in our area but was always with Janeth when we taught her, so she comes here. Her mom works in our area, about 2 blocks from the church so she always comes to church here. Sunday the mom went to work but they told her there wasn't enough work for her so she got fired. She came to conference in time to hear President Monson... She felt so good after that she asked me what we would have to do to baptize Vanessa that day. Conveniently our Zone leader was right there and interviewed her and she got baptized also (THANK YOU PRES MONSON!!). I hope the mom will get baptized next week. It was a cool experience.
My time is running short which is a shame because I'm sort of in a typing mood. One last thing, Pres Romney has told us that it would be cool if you guys could write a letter to some of the recent converts, I have been thinking about this a lot with Cesar and family. This would be a great help to them because of the challenges that they have (by the way I have already invited them to the house when I come home). The battle that Cesar is having with the Word of wisdom is just starting and I know a letter would help him in the tough times. I was wondering if you could write them a letter with your testimonies or something in it. Their names are Cesar Roman, Janeth, Ares (7.5 years), Randy (3?), there is a baby but I don't remember his name. I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for all you do for me. I really love you guys. THANKS FOR THE PICTURES!!!!! I´ll wait for more... maybe from the hike or something.
Love,
Elder Waite
September 26, 2011
Hello Family!!Happy peach season!!! I am a little sad that we are missing it. I guess I'll just enjoy it more when I get back. Thanks so much for the pictures that you sent. I loved them. I am sending you a picture of the recent baptisms that we have had - the two kids are Oracio and Karina. The lady is Janeth and the other picture is of her husband this past Sunday, I had the opportunity to baptize him. His name is Cesar Roman, he is a really rough character. He has tattoos and gave up doing a lot of things that were against the word of wisdom. The funny thing is that he is one of the people that were most ready for baptism when it came. As far as the question about the active baptisms, Maria and Martha are the only ones that don't go to church.
This is Elder Riley’s address: 212 west 100 north - right by the old tabernacle just so you can drive past and see his parents some time.
Pictures of the shoes: these are the ones that are from the Kater shop. I'm pretty sure that if we send a picture they will send us a new pair free but I'm not sure. If not I'll just buy some here.
Addition to the Christmas list: I don't know if you remember the blue addidas backpack that I have. I didn't use it much because I don't like it. I don't know where it is. I might have given it to Hannah. If there is nobody using it then I think I could use that. I don’t really care that I don't like it...it’s pretty hard to be cool as a missionary so I wouldn't mind using it right now. If you are just dying to get something else for me I could use a season pass to one of the ski resorts near Rexburg for 2013.
Addition to the Christmas list: I don't know if you remember the blue addidas backpack that I have. I didn't use it much because I don't like it. I don't know where it is. I might have given it to Hannah. If there is nobody using it then I think I could use that. I don’t really care that I don't like it...it’s pretty hard to be cool as a missionary so I wouldn't mind using it right now. If you are just dying to get something else for me I could use a season pass to one of the ski resorts near Rexburg for 2013.
It’s been a good week, pretty stressful. I have realized more and more how blessed I am to not have been born in Mexico. Cesar has been telling us lots of stories about growing up in the streets. There is some really bad stuff that goes down in Monterrey. I'm pretty sure he is still alive just to get baptized and sealed as a family. I really really like his family, they are just good people.
There is a picture of me, Elder Alonzo E. Toledo y Elder Puentes. We all lived together last transfer. There is also a picture of me trying on an overall.
I love you Guys!!!
Love,
Elder Waite
Elder Waite
September 21, 2011
Hello Family!!!
Man I love hearing from you!! Guess What I got CHANGED!! I was really sad when I found out but I am now glad for the change. Elder Puentes was probably the best comp I had had so far, and definitely a blessing. However I continue to be blessed right now because I am now with Elder Riley. He is from Garland, Utah -- a couple miles south of the gas station in Riverside. He only has a change less than me (same time as Elder Hemsley), but seems like he is fresh off the plane. He is one of the most excited people about missionary work that I know. I really can't ask for more.
I am now in an area called Mitras, still in Monterrey, and actually on the corner of my old area. It is cool. The missionary before me left with a bunch of people for us. We didn't have any sure baptisms planned but we really focused on this one lady (Janeth) and she got baptized. Also two other kids (Karina 17 and Oracio 14) got bapatized that had been in teaching forever. Janeth is a really neat lady, she cuts hair and is married with three noisy kids. The husband and her sister who came to the baptism are who we are focusing on now. The sister is 14 named Vanessa, but the parents don't really want to give us permission to baptize her. We've been promising blessings so far for them. The further and further we get in the week we might have to start promising condemnations. I haven't had much practice in this kind of thing before so we'll see how it goes. Cesar Roman is the husband of Janeth. He was a really really rough character, and still has a few rough edges. He has had lots of problems with the word of wisdom, and we are having faith that he will get over the temptation and be able to get baptized. The good thing is he really wants it and is solid and plenty of people have stopped cold turkey before, but we have the Lord on our side. I have been the part of lots of extremely powerful lessons in their house. My testimony is now so much stronger from knowing them, and there is only one member in the whole family, they will be legit (this is hopefully another temple family). We actually have a lot of people we are teaching right now, and the members love us. I am really excited to work here.
As far as Christmas lists go I really don't need anything, the pants you sent are great mom. I'll probably be sending you a picture of some shoes that you could get for me but they aren't terrible yet so I'll wait on that. Some things that would be nice are the regular deodorant, shaving cream, and razors. I don't know if you can send that stuff. If not it’s ok. It’s just really expensive here. I would really like one of those cool razors that you can change the heads on. I can't use razors that have less than three blades because it irritates my face. Maybe some music would be cool. Disney is allowed here, and in Salt Lake I heard some Hans Zimmer and that I really liked. I bought a CD player that can play MP3 discs. I don't know if you know how to make MP3 discs but it would be easier for you and me that way, but I'm happy with whatever.
One more thing, the President lives in Sierra Madre, and we live with the missionaries in that area. President has called me and offered his house to us any time we need to have some people feel the spirit. So we can call Sister Romney and go over there any time they say and they will feed us and do our job for us. It’s legit. I hope to get to know President really well these next few months. We took Janeth and Cesar over there Sunday night, they loved it.
I love you guys and thanks so much.
Love,
Elder Waite
Man I love hearing from you!! Guess What I got CHANGED!! I was really sad when I found out but I am now glad for the change. Elder Puentes was probably the best comp I had had so far, and definitely a blessing. However I continue to be blessed right now because I am now with Elder Riley. He is from Garland, Utah -- a couple miles south of the gas station in Riverside. He only has a change less than me (same time as Elder Hemsley), but seems like he is fresh off the plane. He is one of the most excited people about missionary work that I know. I really can't ask for more.
I am now in an area called Mitras, still in Monterrey, and actually on the corner of my old area. It is cool. The missionary before me left with a bunch of people for us. We didn't have any sure baptisms planned but we really focused on this one lady (Janeth) and she got baptized. Also two other kids (Karina 17 and Oracio 14) got bapatized that had been in teaching forever. Janeth is a really neat lady, she cuts hair and is married with three noisy kids. The husband and her sister who came to the baptism are who we are focusing on now. The sister is 14 named Vanessa, but the parents don't really want to give us permission to baptize her. We've been promising blessings so far for them. The further and further we get in the week we might have to start promising condemnations. I haven't had much practice in this kind of thing before so we'll see how it goes. Cesar Roman is the husband of Janeth. He was a really really rough character, and still has a few rough edges. He has had lots of problems with the word of wisdom, and we are having faith that he will get over the temptation and be able to get baptized. The good thing is he really wants it and is solid and plenty of people have stopped cold turkey before, but we have the Lord on our side. I have been the part of lots of extremely powerful lessons in their house. My testimony is now so much stronger from knowing them, and there is only one member in the whole family, they will be legit (this is hopefully another temple family). We actually have a lot of people we are teaching right now, and the members love us. I am really excited to work here.
As far as Christmas lists go I really don't need anything, the pants you sent are great mom. I'll probably be sending you a picture of some shoes that you could get for me but they aren't terrible yet so I'll wait on that. Some things that would be nice are the regular deodorant, shaving cream, and razors. I don't know if you can send that stuff. If not it’s ok. It’s just really expensive here. I would really like one of those cool razors that you can change the heads on. I can't use razors that have less than three blades because it irritates my face. Maybe some music would be cool. Disney is allowed here, and in Salt Lake I heard some Hans Zimmer and that I really liked. I bought a CD player that can play MP3 discs. I don't know if you know how to make MP3 discs but it would be easier for you and me that way, but I'm happy with whatever.
One more thing, the President lives in Sierra Madre, and we live with the missionaries in that area. President has called me and offered his house to us any time we need to have some people feel the spirit. So we can call Sister Romney and go over there any time they say and they will feed us and do our job for us. It’s legit. I hope to get to know President really well these next few months. We took Janeth and Cesar over there Sunday night, they loved it.
I love you guys and thanks so much.
Love,
Elder Waite
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)