First Week in the Field!

Hey everyone!! 

This week has been crazy. Time passes the same as the MTC. the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. but i am doing good. got off the plane and as we were coming down the escalator it was seriously just like a movie. it was awesome. our President and his wife was standing there. so we got loaded up... all Thirty of us new arrivals... crazy. and went to the mission home. it is sooo humid here. like i feel like im working hard just to breath. but we ate and i got to sleep at the Assistants house. it was reeeally nice. but I was asleep at about 850. ha i was sleepy. got up had some trainings, got our new companions. and headed out. it is me and Elder Briggs. He is from Mendosa California, he just turned 24 on tuesday

 and oh haha the first thing he said when we got into our house was "Oh, by the way... I snore" hahaha first thing i thought was you gotta be kidding. and true to his word he sure does:) haha but we got some earplugs and now i am sleeping like a baby..... i wake up every two hours and cry:) ha but apparently about three weeks before i got here they lost every single one of their investigators. so that has been hard. so we are doing a lot of less active work and trying to find referrals. OHH!!! yeah im speaking spanish. haha forgot to tell you all that. it is sort of dumb though. if we find someone, but they dont speak spanish, we cant teach em or anything. we have to just give the referral to the english elders. like our neighbor. she likes us, but we cant teach her cause she is white. stupid rule. 

But we found one family, they are the only lesson i have taught that i count, we taught one but this one demon kid kept running around and the lady wasnt really listening. haha anyway. we brought Brother Garcia, who is gold, that guy is so good, but we went in and started talking and then taught about the priesthood and what it can do for us and... honestly i dont really know much of what they talked about haha she is from Honduras and talked REALLY fast, so i lost her. but she had a ton of questions and stuff. all i did was bear my testimony but it made her cry:) so that was cool haha but we set an appointment to go back the next day and they werent there:/ so we are going to check back tomorrow(Tuesday) and see what we can do. 

i have so many funny stories already. one of them was i was writing in my journal and i had my knife with me, so i finished and had to get something from our office, well i stood up and my knife cut my foot. hahaha it wasnt bad or anything, dont worry mom, but it sure bled a ton, but we got it fixed up and were good now;) 

The other one happened yesterday. So it was my first sunday, and they called a new convert to go up and give a talk, so he gave a good talk, which i understood most of, about service. well then he started talking about a member that has cancer that has eaten literally half his nose off. like the left nostril, that skin on the side is gone. we visited him yesterday. anyway. Ubaldo, the recent Convert said we needed to say a prayer from him, well then he says "ok now repeat after me" hahahahahaha he said a full prayer in his talk, thank heavens like two people started to and then stopped, and he had his eyes open and oh my gosh, it was sooo funny. there are just too many dumb things that happen everyday to tell em all or even remember. but the field is good, its not what i thought it was going to be, thats for sure, but we are working on it. we have two more referrals we are going to go visit tomorrow or tonight if we have time. so hopefully that goes well. oh and i said the closing prayer in spanish my first sunday. haha i was kinda nervous and dont know what i said but everyone said i did good. 

i am enjoying it out here. I cant wait to get my Visa and get down to Argentina though. 

sorry for the massive letter

Love all of you so much!!!

Elder Whitaker

or Woodpecker 

haha they cant say our last name for some reason. 

Woodpecker has been common, because thats what they say it sounds like. 

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Emailing back and forth about North Carolina!

7:01 PM (2 hours ago)

Well, it looks like you are moving south in the general direction of Argentina!!  Right?  I am so excited for you!  You will have such a wonderful time down there.  So much of our country's history happened there. Charlotte was actually named after King George of England's wife.

Will you be speaking Spanish?  I cannot wait to hear all the details!  So exciting!  I think Blaine's wife Heather is from there.

We picked up a sleeping bag for you.  It weighs five pounds so you'll be getting it Friday so you can make weight adjustments.

Glad you get to be among the number of those missionaries with actual flight plans.

Also congratulations on your assignment at a Zone leader.  Just a taste of what is waiting for you as you learn and grow.

Love you,

Mom

9:27 PM (24 minutes ago)

Yeah North Carolina!! sweet huh. I have no idea on the Spanish so we will cross that bridge when i get there. 

My friend in my zone said that there are tons of black people there. and my new comp lived there. so thats cool.

I cant wait. but that will mean i am going to be calling at like five or six ish. so we will see if you will be up. :)

So Monday morning right?  We'll be up!!  Hey and did you read Blaines email?

Yes they live there.  Marcia Hilton just emailed me back and said she was born in Charlotte!

Man it's a small world right?

I just emailed Marcia and will let you know.  Scott and Terry left tonight for the

deer camp, took the big tent.  Hey and that Huff kid, the one who was going to

go into the MTC next Wednesday?  Anyway, last night he was long boarding

close to his house and he crashed and hit his head.  He ended up in the hospital

today.  So say a prayer for him that he can have a miracle and make it on his
mission.

9:29 PM (19 minutes ago)

oh jeez. have Scott Huff give him a blessing. those things work. i have given like five since i have been here.

but we have to go to bed. we are already way late for curfew. i will email you sunday night or day at some point. so yeah. 

love you!! 

Elder Whitaker

hey are you there?

i sure am momma
We re so SO SOOO Exctied!
hahaha youre telling me. i ran around for ever. i couldnt even focus.

i have been twitching and smiling ever since

Did everybody in your group get reassigned or did some of them have to stay another week?

no all three of us did. they are going to new york city. like manhattan and have central park and all the cool stuff in their mission

But since you've already been there you get to see another gorgeous part of the country and get
ready because you will FALL in LOVE with those dear people!

And they will fall right in love with you too!  Sounds like your President Craven is a great man.

I'm sure he is very excited to have you on your way!!

ha it will be so fun. i told them to hit up FAO Schwartz

For sure!  Speaking of shopping.  Dad and I went and bought you a sleeping bag
that is good to like 20 degrees and is square on the bottom but rounded on the

top so you can bring it around your head if you need to.  You can take it out of
the box and cram it in your suitcase.  I hope. or just fold it along the bottom of your

suitcase.  Take pictures, this will be interesting.  If it is impossible, mail it back home

I guess and we'll think of plan B.

haha i will for sure. thank you soo much. i cant tell you how grateful i am that i

have my family behind me on this. i have had so many missionaries who are so sad 

that things are bad at home with divorce, siblings going awol or just nonmembers. 

i am so thankful that i dont have to worry about if you are going to church or anything 

like that. so thank you all for being awesome. 

mom youre the best. couldnt do this without you thats for sure. 

Oh Bryce, sniff, sniff....how sweet of you to let me know that.  I will live on

those words for a long long time.  We really are lucky to have such a

sweet family.  All families have challenges but I know for sure we have
avoided many of the problems because Dad and I have tried to follow the

Prophet.  We believe in the promises that the Lord has made to those
who love him.  We love Him, he knows we will follow him and he has
rewarded us with darling obedient Bryce!  We can never repay him.

But we will try by doing our very best.  The Temple is amazing, I'll just
tell you that!  I am bracing for next Tuesday because I had no idea

how much I didn't know!  Love this whole entire gospel.  So thankful
you do too!!

North Carolina Charlotte Mission here I come!

August 15, 2013

5:52 PM (39 minutes ago)IS ANYONE ON WRITE ME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AHAHAHAHAHA GOT MY ASSIGNMENT!!!!!!!

Casey: Where are you going?

Bryce: North Carolina Charlotte Mission!!

I leave on Monday at 3:30 in the morning and take off at 7:30.

I’m so excited. I am getting outta here for real this time:)

Casey: Cool, that will be fun.

Bryce: Yeah. it will be fun. but i gotta go to class now. but I will talk to you later. 

Wouldn't you know it?  I had been on the computer most of the afternoon and the minute

I stepped away, Bryce emailed the family!!  So happy he gets to go to the beautiful South!  He will love it!

August 8, 2013 Not going anywhere for a while

I just got the paper that should have been my reassignment.

I am going to be staying another week in the MTC.

They had a lot of requests for reassignments and i got bumped

to the back. So I am going to be in here for a while. Dont know

who my comp is, where i am sleeping or anything, but we will find out.

So yeah packages and letters are still good to go to the same address

for a while. We are going to learn to be patient in here! :)

 

Elder Whitaker

Mom: Well, that's good news right?  We can get everything gathered up and over to you.

Another chance to smuggle in some contraband. :)  not.

So I need to know what kind of a sleeping bag you need.  Apparently not one

that goes to 60 below.  We were thinking about one that can zip out to be like

a mattress pad, kind of mid range between really cold and a kid sleep over

Barbie type.  Is that right?

Elder Whitaker:

hahaha barbie type? i dont know. uh how cold did Chris get.

i will ask my teacher tonight and smuggle a few minutes to

email you back. but yeah. i think that sounds fine. and

with weight. i can always travel eskimo style;)

just wear everything in my bag;)

ha orr. i just cut holes in the bottom of the sleeping bag.

put my legs through it. then put on my suit and travel in

that. with my big coat on top. win win win. :)

Mom:

Glad to hear you are healthy.  AND AND AND!!  Guess what!!  You will get to

go to the temple next week and see the cool new film.  Dad and I are starting

our new shift Tuesday morning!  Nancy and Terry will be our trainers.  Dad got

a new white jacket and looks like such an official angel in it!  So if you come

that day we promise not to say one word to you.  Haha!

Elder Whitaker:

 i go in on wednesday for Pday. but who knows now that i am not even supposed to be

here. so who knows. but you saying that seriously just made me feel sooooo much

happier!!!!!!!! yes!!!! but yeah dont worry about it i would just wave and walk on by. :)

and i might get to see an apostle in our tuesday night devotional. so its not all bad

but i just wanted to get in the field.

.....note....one week later.  everything always works out.  President Hinckley...:)

August 14, 2013 Final Final Week at the MTC!

Hey everyone!!

Doing good here. having a blast. so some of the things are from last week and some are from this week, but most are really funny. :) 

So for everyone that has been on a mission or knows about our rules, you know that we are not allowed to flirt of anything at all with the sisters. like even being nice at all can get you in trouble, so we basically avoid most of em. ha kinda sad but funny. anyway. we were doing a contacting exercise outside in the area with benches every where. so Elder Benson, Sister Washburn, and i, along with some others but those three are the main people in the story... we were the investigators. so we all walked off and picked benches. so i really hope i can explain this for you to get it. Elder Benson picked the bench up along the wall facing the middle walk ways. Sis Washburn sat on a bench in that center walkway, so Benson was pointed right at her, and i sat on the one all the way across so that if Benson looked past her i was right there. and Sis Washburns bench was pointed kinda towards Benson. So we are sitting there waiting for the "missionaries" to get their instructions and i catch Bensons eye. and he is the funniest kid ever. so he had his arm across the back of the bench just sitting there and he looked at me and like winked and jokingly patted the seat next to him. and i laughed and did the same. well then Hermana Washburn just started laughing for no reason. and at first we were like what the heck? and we realized... she thought that Elder Benson was flirting with her!!!!!! hahahaha it was so funny. 

So right after that incident, we are still doing the contacting activity, our teacher would give us a doubt to have that the missionaries had to find and address. well this one crazy elder, Elder Epperson, got the role of "rebellious teenager" so we start and i am trying to teach an atheist and a catholic... at the same time, i was sooo hard. i am in my little shpeel when i hear like yelling behind me. and basically out of a movie, i see Elder Epperson like screaming at poor Elder Patey, "whos God!!!! Why are you calling me brother!!!!" all this crazy stuff, and in spanish.... i lost it. all of us did. and it got even better when Epperson is like speed walking away just yelling and i see Patey following him, pamphlet open still trying to teach with the most confused and lost look on his face. hahaha so our teacher came over and started talking to us about it, and usually he was always just tryin to keep us in line, but this time he just busted up laughing! he was cracking jokes and it was so funny. ha good day. 

Do you remember (Mom Dad Cathy and Jay) when we went to that play, the one about the sisters that killed everyone and the crazy son... Arsenic and Old Lace or something along those lines i think? well do you remember that balding guy that was the creepy guy. Pretty chunky, really red face, looked like he had scars or something on the side of his face... i think he was the doctor or the mob guy!!! yeah the mob guy. so at "in field orientation" (quotations are there cause im obviously not going to the field yet hahah:) ) anyway. that guy was on a video they showed us!! like he was an investigator! and either it was part of it that he got baptized a while back or no but they had a picture of him in all white, like the baptism clothes. anyway. that was really cool and funny. he had a funny accent in it. that guy is good ;)

Also, Elder Steiner tell Tyler Whitaker that he is going to his mission. There are a lot of people that are going there. When does Tyler come in. I cant remember. A kid in my zone looks just like him. its crazy. 

Oh last thing. I am zone leader now. so thats fun. So Yeah. I am now really good friends with their district leader cause we talk a lot. 

Everything is going really well!!   Oh my goodness. i cant believe it has taken me this long to say this. but we had our Tuesday devotional last night. and it was the first one that has been broadcast to all the other MTC's so that was really cool. We left way early and speed walked the whole way and we got way good seats. down on the floor in the padded ones. it was amazing. but we were just hanging out and we all suspected it was a General Authority because we havent had one in 11 weeks and they have been on vacation for the last two months or so. any way. the Presidency walks out and out come Elder Richard G Scott. how cool is that!!!!! he is such a cute little guy. hes so small!!!! but he isnt looking too good at the moment. he was really pale and we couldnt hear him that well when he spoke. but i took notes like crazy. im going to put em in my journal. but he talked about Prayer and our communication with God. it was amazing. at the end he said if i seemed a little emotional tonight, i would like to tell you why. and then talked about how he lost his wife about 15 years ago and that he felt like she was there with us tonight. and how grateful he was. so after everything he stood up and said Chao. then he walked down the steps and yelled be good. then stopped again and said i hope you feel a lot of love coming your way. then said right before he left that he loved us. and our Branch Presidents wife said that it seemed like he was trying to linger with us because his wife was there and he didnt want to leave yet. thought that was kinda cool.

But Today is Temple Day!!!!!!!!!!! So Im super stoked about that. i will write more about that later today when we get back on to check this one more time. but yeah i know there is a reason i am staying one more week. just from yesterday i have learned a ton. and if every day is as productive as yesterday was. i will be sooo much more prepared to go. one of the teachers on our floor said that she had to stay an extra week, and she learned more in that one week that she did the other 9 she was here. so i am excited to see what happens. I love all of you!! Hopefully i will be able to give us all some good news on Friday. so we will see. 

Les amo. Estoy agradecido por todo de sus picturas y cartas y el amor que puedo sentir de ustedes. 

(really hope that grammar is right... the point will get across i hope:)

Adios mi familia querida

Elder Whitaker

Lo siento. 

love you all and i pray for you everyday! 

 

Hi!  Just barely got back from going to the temple, first time as a missionary. and walking there was so fun. everyone is just so happy to see you and all say hi. and there were families there dropping off elders that are arriving today. but it was just really cool experience. i cant wait to get out in the field. ha too bad the reaction in the field will be a little different than when we are walking on the temple grounds. haha but oh mom!!!!

Bryce's new Companions from Arizona,
best friends Elder Ratliff and Elder White

I saw your car!!!!!!! that was weird. everyone was like what if you see your mom!!! and i dont even know what i woulda done. but we didnt get to cross that bridge so who knows ;)  but yeah we got there at twelve and ate in the cafeteria. probably the best enchilada i have had. or the MTC food has officially killed my taste buds. who knows. probably the last one. but why did you leave the temple so late if you got there at ten? ten to two fifteen is a pretty long time in my eyes. but i dont really know how long it even takes to do a session so... any way:) but that video was amazing!!!! has scott seen it? tell him that its the actor from saving private ryan and saints and soldiers: airborne creed. or maybe he isnt in saving private ryan. maybe just saints and soldiers, and saints and soldiers airborne creed. either way. i totally knew that guy!!!! i loved the video. maybe was a little over emotional in some places. but over all i liked it. it had a completely new meaning for me to be on a mission and watch it. the beginning with the drawings was sick. it made it look like God didnt just go poof and it was there. he put work into it. and there was the drawings of adam and eve. like we also werent just bam here. he took the time and drew us and figured out every detail about us before he did anything. and in the Celestial room i just said a prayer and thanked Him for all i have and the opportunity to come here and stay an extra week to have the chance to go to the temple. it was all just really cool. but my new companions are really cool. i love em. they are such little rascals. they were best friends from Arizona so its cool that they are together. but yeah. getting along really well. everything is going great. 

well talk to you friday. hopefully with some good news. 

Love Elder Whitaker

Aug 14, 2013

Bryce Whitaker <bryce.whitaker@myldsmail.net>	8/14/13
to me

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Beth Whitaker <bbwhitaker@gmail.com>	8/14/13
to Bryce

Yay for pictures that work!!!  You look so happy!

Hey when will you know about your assignment?  Tomorrow

or Friday?  I think we really do need to get a sleeping bag for you.

Bryce Whitaker <bryce.whitaker@myldsmail.net>	8/14/13
to me

yeah i could possibly get it tomorrow but almost for sure friday. 

but yeah i think so on the sleeping bag. but imma be leaving behind a significant amount of stuff. 

 

the blanket we dont need. i will be fine down there. imma by a hammock

Beth Whitaker <bbwhitaker@gmail.com>	8/14/13
to Bryce

Is there anything you want to mail back home or just stuff?

Bryce Whitaker <bryce.whitaker@myldsmail.net>	8/14/13
to me

uhh. like shorts. those grey ones. imma just leave those. uh. i dont know. cause i am taking on books and stuff too. so i will see how good we really are at puzzles.