March 26, 2012

March 26, 2012

Hello Family,

I don't have any time at all this week, but I am doing fine. Well none of the people that I thought would get baptized got baptized yet, however Laura is going to tomorrow. We found another Lizet and her parents and her daughter came to church with her, they are really cool and really ready for baptism. I'm really excited for General Conference. I have read all the talks from last Conference (thanks for sending the Ensign). Congratulations Hannah on the play. I would have loved to see it. I hope you got a good recording.

I love you guys,

Elder Waite

March 19, 2012

March 19, 2012

Hello Family,

Wow, it really has been quite the week there. After reading your letter I feel like the family that we took to church yesterday. They had friends over that didn't leave until 3:00 in the morning, and they went to three hours of church (they haven't been to any church in years, so three hours in one church at one time is impressive) and a baptism that lasted about another hour with the whole show. I asked the girl how she liked church and she just sort of stood there with a dazed look as if she didn’t' know what to say. I think she must have liked something, because the she and her brother both said they would like to get baptized. Their names are Juritza and Jose Francisco (Pepito) the dad’s name is also Jose Francisco, he is really cool. He likes to listen and ask questions but for some reason he is a little cold when we talk about baptism... that just means there are some doubts that just haven't come to the surface yet. Hopefully this week he will tell us more so he can get baptized with his kids.

Naomi Tamara got baptized yesterday. I'm not sure if I told you about her last week, might have slipped my mind. She has had a tough life, just barely came to live with her mom (a member) for the first time in her life. Paola and Leticia got confirmed with no problems.

Yes, I did watch Maren’s Beauty and the Beast play, and enjoyed it very much. Good luck with your play Hannah, I'd love to watch it... I guess it will have to be next year.

I like my area - the people are solid and like to listen. We are working with a Christian called Lizet who understands everything we say and asks really good questions. That could also be a bad thing because she is using her head not her feelings. I don't know what else I can tell you about the area... it’s really hot, and we drink lots more, and eat lots of freshly made flour tortillas. One of the things I miss is drinking milk at meals.

I hope you are all doing well.

 Love,

Elder Waite

March 12, 2012

March 12, 2012

Hello Family,

It’s been a good week, two baptisms: Leti and Paola. They are real miracles. I love this ward - Everyone is so excited about missionary work and willing to help us. There are a ton of less active members and we already know two kids that are 9 that haven’t been baptized. We got to know them just by visiting random people. I am actually in the area where my first companion, Elder Davis was in, it was his first area. One of the kids we know is of a family that he baptized.

Elder Gonzalez is cool, we get along well, he is pretty relaxed and likes to laugh but sometimes he is serious and all the members always say, “What happened to the Elder Gonzalez that we know. That’s it for today!!

Love,

Elder Waite

March 5, 2012

March 5, 2012

Hello Family,

I´m glad to hear you are all doing good. I was a little worried last week but I figured something like that must have happened... I am writing you from a new area... Obreras, Monclova, Coahila!!!  I am excited to be here. My new comp is Elder Gonzalez from Pachuca. Monclova is about 2 and a half hours in bus north west of Monterrey, it is a good sized city with two stakes (one zone for us). I love the ward - they are all so excited about missionary work. All of the past places I've been they have all been sort of sleepy or zombieish about missionary work, it is a pretty drastic change. We already have two people lined up for baptism this week, Paula and Leticia. And there is another family; the two kids got confirmed on Sunday and the parents (José and Guadalupe) are going to get married and baptized on Saturday. They have been going to church for 4 weeks I think. There are a bunch of other people that we have and lots of youth in the ward. I like the feeling of this place because everyone is youngish it’s a good change.

Our area reminds me a lot of Panaca, just a little bigger. I think it’s something about the color of the dirt or something - I really like it. It’s pretty hot, dry and windy. One day we got up to the mid 90's. There are horses and dogs running around everywhere, all the good ones have owners but the skinny ugly ones just roam around. We are on bikes, I was worried that I was going to get changed and was planning on buying a bike but Elder Morby was the last one here and he just went home and left his bike. It has a while in the mission so it’s pretty worn out. I think I'll just put some new breaks on it and stuff like that. He was my District leader in Morelos, if you remember from the pictures, he is the one without the tooth. Elder Gonzalez only has about 3 weeks in the area so we are lost everywhere we go. That's not a bad thing because we stop and ask directions from people and start to talk to them about the gospel, we have been able to find a couple new people that way.

The stake president invited us over for dinner last night and we were talking, turns out he was a missionary in Guadalajara at the same time Dad was. In fact he was born in 65 as well. I told him you were in the areas San Blas and Ajijic. His eyes got pretty big and he told me that he opened Ajijic. He is pretty sure you were serving at the same time but he would have had more time in the mission than you because he left when he was 18. His name would have been Elder Villegas, he also said he was Assistant to the President. I don't know if you remember him or have stuff that you could look for his name but that was something really cool that happened.

I have a lot to tell you but I think I'll stop here, just know I love you and wish the best. I have a favor to ask you... I bought some granola and realized how much I like it. I think that would be a pretty good food that wouldn't spoil in the mail. I don't know if you still make granola but if you did I would appreciate some, but I don't want you to stress about it.

Love,

Elder Waite

February 27, 2012

February 27, 2012

Hello Family,

Happy Monday! I hope you are all doing fine this day and all days... I have felt good since Friday but there were lots of people that told me I looked skinny on Sunday (one sister wants me to go and eat at her house every night so I start to fatten up again), that probably won’t happen because its highly possible that I will get changed from this area. The famous call should come tonight telling us what happens, I don't like to assume but I feel like it’s time, I've been here for a quarter of my mission and I loved it.

We had two baptisms yesterday, Francisco and Daniela, two completely different groups. It was actually fairly unstressful. I didn't have to do anything except baptize and lead the music. Thursday I got a call from Sister Teresa (Lydia (Pancho's wife) friend of Theresa) and she said that Francisco wanted to get baptized. We had directions to go around 8 on Thursday and make a normal visit and see what he said to us. We were there about 15 minutes when he started to tell us how he has really wanted to talk to us and then told us he wanted to get baptized as soon as possible.  He finally figured out that he was expecting blessings from God without even doing anything that deserved blessings. It was pay day for a lot of work, but I am not taking the credit. Daniela is 8 and the daughter of Ana Maria and Benito, Ana Maria isn't a member and I'm pretty sure I have written about her before. Daniela just said on Thursday also that she wanted to get baptized. I hope it will help Ana Maria out...

That’s all folks!

Love,

Elder Waite

Ps - I got the package and I think it is the coolest one yet.  Grandma’s history is really cool and I am loving reading it. I was actually going to ask you to send me it (I didn't think it would be in book form, which just makes it even cooler) I have read the histories of Grandma and Grandpa Waite and all of the Great Grandparents on that side except Grandpa Loyn Blacker because it is about 170 pages shrunk down. I have really enjoyed them. Thank you very much Mom.

February 22, 2012

Hello Family!!

Yes, we eat at a member’s house every day except for Mondays, in which the members that really like us usually invite us over to eat anyway. It is with random sisters of the ward; they just print a calendar and give it to everyone. I get about 1400 Pesos a month, which is about 120 dollars and that is how we pay for transportation and breakfast and dinner. To give you an idea about what we spend it on: a box of cereal-30 to 50 pesos, a half gallon of milk-23, peanut butter-45, oatmeal without flavor I think 400g-10, 1k of bananas-10, bus-10, metro-4.5.

As far as the question about what Tristan should do to prepare to serve, I really am not sure. If you are looking for a secret recipe there is one, and the prophets have told us lots about it -- studying and praying. Tell Tristan not to study weird things but to study about everyday situations that he has (or with his own questions). Doing this, he will really be interested in the subject and will be able to recall what he learned later. Another thing is, he could think about all the commandments that the Lord has given us and think or write down specific times when he as seen the blessings of keeping them in his life, or when he has not wanted to keep them and wasn't as blessed.

We have had a riot this week. I'm pretty sure I've told you about Lucy. We saw her all this week until Friday morning when she left out of town and got back Saturday night. We talked to her a lot about getting baptized this week. She said she would if the weather was good and we had hot water - she has told us that before and she decided to not do it at the last minute so I didn't really believe her. Sunday morning we decided to pass by her house and see if she was going to go. Turns out she was already there and had been for a couple hours. She had to escape from her house early because her daughters don't like the church, but she was lost for a while because she told her daughters she had gone with a sister from the ward that is her friend and lives close. Nobody knew where she was for a while. We got to church after the sacrament and found her there. She told us she was ready to get baptized (luckily we already did the interview) so we went to start the font filling, but the boiler didn't work so we called the zone leaders and they started their font filling with ´´hot water´´. Meanwhile we found a brother who could take us and got everything worked out to go to the zone leaders building. When we got there the water was just above my knees and not hot. But I wasn't about to wait for it to fill because she still wasn't sure if she was going to do it. We had a quick service (I don't think she understood much, she's basically deaf and blind) and then I baptized her. I had to do it twice because old people don’t really bend. The second time I put my leg over hers and my shoulder pushed her down (good thing that she isn’t either tall or fat (remember how deep the water is). I was a little worried I drowned her but she got up and the testigos said it was good.

I am running out of time (tell Tristan to learn how to type fast). Yesterday I was the sickest I've been the whole time I've been here. We ate some pretty shady stuff and on top of that I have been stuffed up with a sore throat. I got diarrhea around 5:00 and around 7:00 we were on a bus. It was about 110 degrees in there and packed with people so I could barely move and I got really nauseous. I got off the bus just in time and threw up more than I ever have in my entire life, meat and fried potatoes with agua de Jamica. I feel bad for all the people that had to see it, because it was on the side of a 4 lane highway during stop and go traffic. I didn't even think about getting back on that bus. We started to walk the rest of the way home, took a little nap on a random slab of concrete and walked for about 45 minutes until we gave up and took a taxi to the house. When we got to the house I couldn't even rest because we still hadn't picked up our clothes from the sisters house (about a half mile away). Needless to say we did not go to the temple today as planned. I think it's going to be a couple days before I can get on another bus. Thank heavens we live with otros elders and they could help and give me a blessing last night. I feel pretty good today.

Anyway, I've probably made you all sick in just reading this so I think I'll stop. I hope the best for you all and I love you.

Elder Waite

February 13, 2012

Dear Family,

I'm glad to hear my fame hasn't diminished at home. The funny thing is, I don't even know the little girl that you are talking about, but you can tell her I say HI. As far as melatonin I have lots still from the MTC so I wouldn't worry about sending any, I haven't tried taking it for a while. I lost about 10 pounds, but I'm staying at a steady 195 now. Mexicans are always amazed when I they find out I weigh that much... I think it’s funny to tell them. It’s true that I'm not really eating like a legit rhinoceros but I do eat. You don't need to worry about me, I feel fine and it’s not that bad anyway.

It’s been really cold this week. We were going to have a baptism - her name is Lucy. She has lots of faith; she just doesn't want to get wet on a cold day. Today isn't cloudy and tomorrow should be better so any day now she will get baptized. Other people we have: Alàn, the college student - we saw him on the metro this week and he asked us when we were going to come by. This semester his schedule is busier but that is a good thing... now he doesn't have time to party. If everything goes well he will get baptized this Sunday. Ana Maria, Tabatha and Daniela are a family that we are working with. My goal is for them to get baptized before I leave this area. It’s possible that I only have about two weeks left... sad but true.

Anyway, we are doing great. I hope you are all doing fine as well.

Love,

Elder Waite