MTC
July 17, 2013

Salutations my dearest family.

so im short on time and the computers here keep freezing and eating my time and its killing me but oh well. thats fine.

anyway! everything is going great. we started this program called TRC and you go into these little rooms and teach regular members. like they dont pretend to be an investigator they are just themselves and you talk about any problems they have with the gospel any challenges they have in their lives or in my case you talk about golf for fifteen minutes and realize you have five minutes left in your lesson before you open with a prayer. then you ask if they have any questions you can help with and the guy honestly was like. well i really wanna know the daily schedule of the missionaries. so we just talked about what we do every day. and then on our evaluation chart he said he wanted us to share something else with him when he gave us nothing to go on. so that was cool

have i told you guys about the cream soda tree? cause yeah guys. there is a tree that smells like cream soda. Casey if you ever need a new business idea i think we have something there;) also for Casey. was that picture of the white guy with the black guy your friend? didnt you do the Haka at Canyon View Park with him? i feel like that was something. also send me the words to the Haka. i have been having some sick doodles over here. i will mail em home or something. but they are really cool. also did they have the Cream soda tree when you or Lance came through??

we had a fireside last night. Pres Hinckley's son came and it was really cool.-- i think. i got distracted. but you could hear Pres H in his voice and see him in his face. it was really cool. i didnt hear much but what i did was nice. the reason i got distracted was i found landon and sat by him. and of course we didnt focus. before we were like oh how sweet would it be if we were companions. and now we know. that would be the worst decision anyone has ever made. haha we literally just talked and laughed the whole time. he is such a funny kid! i have missed our stupid humor so much! but i have elder morrin in here with me and he is pretty freaking hilarious. that kid has the funniest things to say in every situation.

my spanish is really coming along great. i just gotta get the golden plates and memorize that and ill be good to go. oh the plates is a little gold card of conjugations. conjugations is really the only place im hurting right now. that and object pronouns. wow do those really suck. but everyone says dont worry about the language. work at it but dont get mad. just focus on learning the gospel and everything will work out.

so are you kidding me!!!!!!! i got a TWO!!! i suck! i thought i would have at least gotten a three! but lets face it. i gave up on the entire free response. that was where i drew the best lion ever. it was awesome and i havent been able to do it since. but thats ok. i hate math and math has now shown its true feelings for poor Elder Whitaker.

and mom. or i kinda feel like Scott had a lil sumthin sumthin to do with the receiving of the BBQ chicken cheese sticks. but oh my great goodness!!!!!! i needed that so bad!!!!!!! like you dont even know how happy i was when i got that! i have a picture of me that i will send over. but there is a funny back story. so my comp got like four packages in one day haha it was redonk. but the funny thing was that it was like a jacket or rainpants and stuff he had forgotten at home. Me and Elder Morrin were makin fun of him as we were walking to the post office about getting rainpants earlier and elder morrin was like "if i got rainpants i dont think i would be super stoked about that. like Aw sweet rainpants!!! YEAH!!!!!!" it was way funnier than that. anyway. so i got that package and was like super excited. and then..... i saw that towel poking out the side. haha i had the biggest AWWW ever. so we go back to the room and im feelin like a dumb person cause i just made fun of Elder Clarke for his packages and then got a towel. so i opened it up and went to grab the towel when i realized there was something in it. and when i finally got through the two rolls worth of tape;) and saw that sweet sweet box of BBQ CCS. i screamed. i was running around yelling YEAHHHHHHH!!!!!! haha we had just eaten dinner. and that didnt slow me down. they were still nice and warm. (high five mom) and i ate half the box and gave some out to the other guys from SF on my floor cause i knew they would appreciate it. so after the Devotional our Branch presidency 2nd counselor was coming over so we were cleaning up and i had just the ends and like two of the ones that are next to it left. and i dont know if im allowed to have stuff like that. and our garbage is under the desk. so i just set it on top of the can. well turns out later that night freaking Elder Clarke decides to do something and he threw em away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so yeah that was a little depressing and i only cried for like.... ten maybe fifteen minutes. haha chiste. but yeah im not too mad. they were the parts that no one really likes any way.

well guys just know that the church is true. god is there. and i now know for sure that i have gotten an answer from him. like no doubt about it. i know im here doing what i should be. and that the things i know and have taken for granted my whole life can bless someones life.

I love you guys!!!

No se preocupan sobre mi.

Elder Whitaker