February 6, 2012

Hello Family,

Thanks for your email. I like hearing from you as well Mom. I'm glad to hear you are all doing well. I am doing fine also, I guess I can't complain. We had a baptism yesterday, however it didn't count for us, she is a little girl named Lesslie. She asked me to baptize her. It was pretty fun. It didn't count for us because she is 8 and her parents are both members. We normally leave it up to the ward to do everything in this case, but they were sleeping on the job so we just decided to do it. The mom, Theresa is a recent convert and active - actually she feeds us sometimes, and she gave us the reference for Lydia and Uriel who just barely got baptized. She also talked to you on the Christmas tape that I sent. We made invitations and legit programs, and I was content doing it because they have many friends that would and did come to church. Our pool of possibilities is now lots bigger and some more people know a little about us. That was the big thing that happened to us this week.

It is a cold day in Monterrey, tomorrow is going to be colder. My fingers are having trouble typing. I miss the cold like it is at home but I would probably die if I had to live in a concrete house in Idaho. I haven't been feeling great lately. I lost a little weight and haven't been sleeping good so I decided to talk to Sis Romney about it. She said it was normal for missionaries that have a long time in the mission. I didn't realize I was one of those that had a lot of time. I'm not telling you this to get you worried (Mom) I still eat and work like a rhinoceros. I just thought it was funny that she thought I had lots of time in the mission...weird.

Anyway, have a good week!

Love,
Elder Waite

January 30, 2012

Dear Family,

I'm glad you enjoyed the tape. I think the story of The Little Engine That Could was a copy and they just changed the story a little or maybe it wasn't the original or something. I don't remember how the colors were and Elder Riley is far from here right now. I am glad that Janie enjoyed listening to me read it.

Thank you for your letters and mail again, they encourage me.

Happy Birthday Dad. I remembered - I promise. I wanted to send you a letter - I have had the letter written and everything for a while but just haven't had time to send it. It will be a late birthday present. Mom it’s not a bad thing that there isn't very much to write, no news is good news; I've decided that I'm happy as long as I am never bored.

I've been reading back in my journal lately (I wrote some of the weirdest things) but it’s cool to see the change that has happened in the past year. some of the things were really good. Keeping a journal has been pretty interesting. It’s kind of like studying yourself. I encourage you all to do it. I was also thinking a lot about the way you raised me. Thank you very much for all the sacrifice.

Maren, are you in 8th grade or 9^th? Hannah, are you a junior now? That means Jr. Miss right? You've probably already started but keep me updated!!

Love,

Elder Waite

January 25, 2012

Greetings Family!

How is everybody doing? I have had a great couple days because I finally got mail!!! A bunch of Christmas stuff and more from you guys and other various persons. Also the weather here is perfect, apart from being a little humid, and has been for a while; mid 70's with very mild clouds and winds. Now I only sweat when I walk fast or for long periods of time.

For the Questions: Picadillo is browned ground beef with potatoes in little cubes. Yes, I love shakes, I've moved on to papaya and oatmeal. Sometimes I eat it with vanilla whey protein if I worked out hard in the morning. I just put about 1/8th-1/4 of a gallon of milk with about a quarter or a half of a papaya, or if it is a banana shake, two bananas. Blend it up with a little bit of honey, put it in a yogurt container and mix the oatmeal in raw. It’s one of the best parts of my day because I eat it during personal study.

We had Zone conference yesterday. It was pretty cool. Sister Romney always delivers the most powerful message – at least for me. She talked about Christ-like attributes, and especially humility. Consequently, that chapter in Preach my Gospel is my favorite. I had actually been studying it lately. I think I am often like a horse in the harness that is just fighting and using more energy to get out and do my own thing than to just go and do like Nefi. If we all just had the faith to be humble enough to accept the Lord’s will we would suffer a lot less and get a lot more done.

We have a baptism today at 6:30. Lydia - she is really excited and so am I. I just hope her husband follows...we might just push him in tonight, de una vez, because he is just making up excuses now.

Congrats on the new arms. Looks like the girls are going to turn into either magpie killers or world helpers.

Love,

Elder Waite

Handwritten letter mailed December 10, 2011--arrived in Clifton January 16, 2012

December 7, 2011

Hey, how are you? I’m doing fine thanks, except it’s kinda cold. Yesterday we woke up to a little rain, but mostly it was just cold. It hasn’t frozen yet but it’s really close. Thank the heavens that we have a little heater here.

Yesterday was changes. Elder Riley left. I have a new companion, Elder Abbott, and I’m training! That was sort of a shock to me but I’m excited. I haven’t even been with him for 24 hours but I am having flashbacks to when I got here. . .I’m glad that’s over. I feel so bad for him. He seems like a really good kid. He is really skinny and short – it’s probably a little funny to see us together.

Right now we are waiting to go to district meeting. We are listening to the forgotten carols. I am starting to feel the Christmas spirit. I hope all of you are feeling the same.

Yesterday we had to go to the offices and I got a package from Aunt Amy!! I haven’t read the stuff yet, only up to the part that she said I had to wait to open the packages.

I sent you a package by our bishop who is going to Salt Lake for a couple of days. I was going to have you meet somewhere, however I think it would be a better surprise this way because you’ll probably get the package before this letter.

I just realized that today is D-day. Happy D-day.

I feel like the Lord has been giving our family a chance to simplify our lives through the stuff that has been happening lately. You guys are probably laughing at that, but it might be a little true.

Thank you for all you do for me, especially you Mom. I hope that you can all stay a little sane. I’m sure that you are all in a hurry like usual but I hope you can feel unified as a family. I feel unified to you.

There are commercials that the church has put on the TV for a free copy of Joy to the World, the copy of the movie made by the church. There are all sorts of people who just come up and randomly ask for one from us. It is one of the great tools that the church has provided for us lately.

It is an interesting time to be alive and a great time to be a missionary!

Love,
Elder Waite

November 1, 2012

Handwritten, snail mail letter. . .

Dear Waite Family,

I take pencil in hand to tell you that I am doing just fine. Today is Tuesday, usually we have zone meeting but this week we don’t because we have zone conference on Thursday. This morning has been normal. I woke up around 6:20, earlier than I should but I was awake and just decided to get up because I knew if I didn’t I would be more tired later. I exercised doing push-ups and sit-ups, ironed my shirt, showered, ate peach yogurt with corn flakes in it, then started to study.

I studied to the Mo-tab CD of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, and started to review my notes from General Conference, because in zone conference we are all going to share something that inspired us. I found in my notes something that said, “teach in a way that doesn’t impede learning,” and other various quotes about the Holy Ghost so I started to study about that.

In companionship study we just talked about the lessons that we have planned for today. We ended about 10 minutes early and went to a sister in our ward who has a blender and lives close, so we could make ourselves a banana with oatmeal shake. Right now is language study. I rarely study language anymore – not because we don’t want to, but because there are always so many other things that we need to do.

Today we are going to eat with an hermana that has a Mexican hairless dog. She usually fixes us picadillo or something like that. It should be good.

I has been getting pretty cold here at night – not enough to shut the window, but I have been using a blanket. I really like the brisk feeling that there is right now. The Mexicans don’t. I think that fall is my favorite time of the year, and it is easy to miss home thinking about the reasons why. However, I am glad that I am here. That still doesn’t make me wonder how you all are doing. In your letters it sounds like you’re all just as busy as ever.

I hope this letter gets to you, or the mail man just pockets the 20 pesos that it cost to send it. It’s not a long letter and I haven’t said much, but I at least wanted to say hi. Hi! I love all you guys and miss you.

Love,
Elder Waite

January 16, 2012

Hello Family,

How are you all doing? Today is the last day of the transfer for us. I'm pretty sure I'm not going anywhere and neither is my comp. The plan that they gave us is for two transfers and we only have one. I will be in this area for six months... a quarter of my mission. But I like it, the members are cool, my comp is cool. Sadly I don't have baptisms to report this week. We had two possible baptisms this past week, however they didn't feel ready and the sister is afraid of water. Willie and Guadalupe went to church with us and also a really old guy that sold me one of the oldest, coolest cameras ever for fifty pesos. We aren't sure if he wants anything but we'll see.
It was stake conference this week, It was really good, they did a broadcast from Salt Lake with Elder Rasband and Elder Oaks. Everything was great except they told everyone that it stated at 10 so we got there, started the meeting, and turned the projector on to see that the program would start in 55 minutes. Everyone just chilled there or left for a little while. Surprisingly they also talked a lot about temples as well. Thanks Mom for telling me about Sacrament Meeting and Dad’s talk on temples.

NO time:( As far as talking about me this week, I love these chapters of the Book on Mormon - Moroni 7 and Alma 41.

Love,
Elder Waite

January 9, 2012

Hello family!

Thanks for the email, I really enjoyed it this week. This Feel Great in 8 team thing is interesting . . . I’ll be my own team. What do you get if you win? ¡Hechenle Ganas Hallie and Sadie!

We had a legit week. Uriel got baptized. He is the son of Francisco and Lydia. I hope to report that the parents get baptized this week. We had a legit dinner with President and Sister Romney. The baptism was especially good. I don't know why. Another Hermana named Lucy went to church. She is pretty much blind and deaf and doesn't understand me with my accent... I appreciate her faith. She has extreme family opposition.

The past 5 weeks I have been studying faith. It’s a pretty amazing thing. I think I'll compile my thoughts and send you something next week.

My comp is doing very well. I love training.

I also love you guys, have a good one.

Elder Waite