October 9 - November 5, 2012

November 5, 2012

Hey FAMMM!!!

See you soon!!

Love,

Elder Waite

October 31, 2012

Hey family,

I am doing great, how are you? I'm only going to write a little and then write a little more later. I really just have a question or favor... I am thinking about getting my teeth whitened. It is fairly cheap here. I am sending this to all of you so that hopefully you can respond to me soon... before 4pm if possible. The problem, or question is that I told Dr. Iverson that I wouldn't let anyone in Mexico touch my teeth. I would like you to call him and ask permission for me to do it - if you know what I mean. If he says no, I'm sure he has reason to and I will accept it.

Thanks. Tell me if there is anything I can do for you while here.

Elder Waite

PS - I did get your email about the dresses, I'll do my best. I think that having the appointment to be released that night would be ok, that way people could get to school and the airport meeting might be a little smaller and quicker. Whatever you guys think is best is fine with me. Happy late Nevada day. There is an Elder in the zone who is from Las Vegas. I called him yesterday and told him that. Thanks to my mother I knew I was Nevada Day.  He was glad to hear that. 

Love,

Elder Waite

October 22, 2012

Hello Family,

I am doing fantastic. Today we had another adventure - we hiked the Mitras mountain today. I sent you a picture of where we were last week, the little mountain in the background is the part of the Silla that we climbed last week. On top of the Mitras there were some really cool caves and mines, we had fun looking around.

This week was stake conference. I enjoyed listening to the messages. It seemed that the stake presidency was taking a lot about what I have wanted them to talk about, they focused on Missionary work and basic things like listening to General Conference and going to church. This stake is sort of struggling; it seemed like a good sized ward at home when all the stake was together... I am just hoping that we can make a difference in the little time I have left.

My companion and I have decided to clean our ward list. We are visiting inactives and listing whether they live there or not, to be able to work efficiently. It is pretty sad to see the differences in someone who were living the gospel but left. The thing to do is just stay active and keep the covenants we make. In this mission, and most of them in Mexico, there will be a change to zero contacting.  We will be working with references. That is why we are cleaning the list, for those that follow us, and also hoping to get references from the less-actives.

I think I told you about Manuel, he is our only investigator right now. We just need the permission of his mother....

Thanks for writing Sadie!!! I am super super sad that I am almost finished. As far as who I want to hug first, I'm not really sure, I would say you (sadie) however Mom might kill me. You can talk her into me letting me hug you first. I'm gonna hug all of you so you guys can decide the order... just don't fight because contention comes from the devil.

Love,

Elder Waite

October, 14, 2012

Hey Family,

I hope you are all doing well. I hope you were able to get the letter I sent last week. It was a good one. Today I'm not going to have much time, but I am going to ask: is there anything specific that I can bring you from here? This is basically your last call...

I am doing super good, today we climbed one of the mountains by the mountain of the Silla. I enjoyed it very much. We were going and it was a super long way, and when we got to the top there was a drop off for a few hundred feet.  I have never seen the mountain on the other side or the other half of the city before because it is part of the other mission. Getting to the top was really worth it because we were in pretty thick brush and couldn't see anything. I got to the top and just lifted myself over one rock and the whole view just smacked me in the face. I will show you pics in a few weeks.

As far as missionary work goes we are struggling a little bit. This area is a lot like Mitras and Morelos, where I was before, it seems that the members are all asleep. There are going to be some changes that will happen in the mission starting November. The goal is that we will no longer knock doors - there will be pure references and less-active work. The missionaries will be experts in asking references and supposedly the members are going to be more than willing to give them to us, another benefit is that the number of less-actives will go down because we will be visiting them and asking references and teaching them and other investigators at the same time. We have been capacitating the missionaries and their ward and the stake presidents about what is going to happen. Everyone seems to be having success stories except us. The good thing is that I am not bored, this change has given us lots to think about and even more to do.

There are a couple cool families that we are teaching: Juanni (40 mother) Jesus (13 son) Paola (12 daughter) David (8 son) their father and husband is a Z (¿gangster? but a little different) which is why they weren't able to go to church. We aren't exactly sure what is happened but they could use your prayers. Alejandra (45) is their neighbor, we were looking for a less active recent convert and we found her, she is an aunt of the person that we were looking for who is actually active, she just goes to a different ward; she has many problems as well. We also had a girl come up to us and ask what she needed to do so that her boyfriend and her could get married in the temple, the boyfried (Ivan 19) isn't a member. We told her he needed to get baptized. They are planning the wedding for November next year, he needs to get baptized fast to make that date. I think he will, but they weren't able to go to church yesterday :(

We haven't had much time in our area but the Lord has blessed us with these people.

I love you guys and hope you are well.

Elder Waite

October 9, 2012

Hello Family and Cody,

Thank you all so much for helping with the school effort. I was super surprised when I got  called on Monday night (they always call us late Monday night and we pack all night and leave Tuesday morning) and told me that I was leaving. I received the call with the transfers from the zone leaders and I was to pass them on to my district. When they told me that in my area two elders were going to come, I thought that we would be in a three some - that almost never happens with elders. Turns out they white washed my area (which is pretty sad because we had 8 people in church my last Sunday in Acuna) my companion went home and I came back to Monterrey. I am with Elder Chuquipoma, he is from Peru, La Libertad in the city of Trujillo. Supposedly his last name means strong puma. He is a really good Elder, always talking and laughing (sometimes to himself). The cool thing is that I am in the Valle Morelos Zone.  I have been in this zone three times now, last year in Morelos and 8 weeks ago in Garcia and now.

I hope to hear that everything went well with DYW. I wish I could have been there to watch you Hannah - however I have faith that the family supported you well. 

I have shared some jerky with each companion that I have had, they all love it, the cool thing is that you will now be able to make it.

As far as school goes, I am now a little sad, and very repentant of not having tried harder. When, from where and how many dollars is it going to take to take the online class? I talked to President about the ecclesiastical endorsement and he said that he sent it. I don't know if he sent it to the school or to you but it is there.

Things in the mission are great, the devil still keeps throwing us curve balls all over the place. I am really grateful that I had so much time as just a senior comp (we are Zone leaders by the way). I miss just worrying about my own area and not 14. The Lord knows what is best for me. I have accepted that I just need to do what he has sent me to do...and do it well. I really enjoyed conference and especially Elder Holland’s talk, we have a copy of one parecido that he gave in the MTC a while back but this one was super cool also.

I love you guys. I hope you can all remember the song that the choir sang and that we have all sang about doing things if Jesus was at our side.  I can’t remember the name but it’s a good one.

Love,

Elder Waite