NC Week 9 and counting....

Hello Family and others

Well this week has been a great one.  We have been doing a lot. so i am now serving with the Zone Leaders, and that has been fun. but man, we never sleep. ha it has been a big adjustment to that. we always have stuff to do at night and now i am making phone calls with em and all that fun stuff. but they have a lot of investigators, especially compared to where i was. the first day i got here was really funny. back in Burlington we had our weekly goals and all that, well my first DAY here we hit almost all of em. like lessons and visits and all that. ha it was really fun. we have been super busy. 

Funny and also cool story. So we have an investigator, Brother Treece, he is about 61 or so. 60's for sure, and he is an Atheist. He hadn't prayed for 38 years. so they had been working with him for a while and about the second time i got to meet with them, he finally prayed. it was really cool. well the third time he prayed or the second, cant remember, but we were all kneeling there. and after he said the prayer we looked at him and asked him how he felt and how he thought the answer would come. well he said "well it aint no boomin voice" and literally like a second later, there was this big BOOM outside. hahaha it was sooo funny. like i dont know if it was lighting and thunder or what, but the timing was perfect. it was really cool and super funny.

We had stake conference down in Charlotte this weekend. which was really cool. they invited all the Elders and Sisters to go to the Adult session of Conference. so i now know what yall do in that!!! but it was neat. our Mission President spoke, and that man is the bomb!! i love him. he had the coolest talk and everything was just sweet. then we had the next days, one of our investigators, who will get baptized the weekend after i leave.... came to church. and there was a recent convert, emphasis on recent. he had been baptized two days before. and he was invited to bear his testimony in stake conference!!! like on the spot cause one of the speakers got sick and couldnt come. well he nailed it!!! he talked about a young man in a testimony meeting that had born his testimony and it had really touched him. he talked for a little more about him and then he paused, and said, then i asked that young man to baptize me. and wow. the Spirit just flooded the room, our investigator did like a gasp awww thing and it was just awesome. 

Then last nights dinner........ hahaha oh family... i havent changed a bit. 

so we are walking up to this house, nice house, and i see two big dogs, one lab and one just chunky and about as tall as Dixie. so i am thinkin wow, thats a big lab. and then oh my goodness!!! this Great Dane shows up and i am like one stair or two below it. and its almost at eye level!!!!!! it was huge!!!!! its name was Zeke and it was soo cool. the family had a raised up table and big bar chairs up next to it, and this thing could look right at your plate, like how Dixie just stands there and pokes her nose over the edge, about like that but higher and youre four feet in the air. when we were sitting on their couch i was looking up at it! i mean this thing was large in stature! hahaha

then we got to play with it. he went out back a got a "stick" i kid you not, like four feet tall and the thickness of a baseball bat or more and he was just running around with it!!! so cool. so we went inside and we are all crammed on the couch, and he (Zeke) walked up, turned around and sat on the couch!!!!!!! with his front legs on the ground and all!!!! it was soo funny. so we, with the dog, shared our thought, then we were going to say the prayer. 

well Elder Fowles was going to say it, and had just started when all of a sudden this mammoth hit me in the face with his head and like slobbered on my face!! and of course i audibly said "Oh jeez!!" ha well then we started giggling...... and then Zeke walked right over to Elder Fowles, who's desperately trying to keep it together and wacks him too!!!! and that was it. we lost it. we started laughing so hard. I looked at the mom and she was covering her face in her hoodie just dying, everyone was laughing, E Fowles just ended it and we just laughed oh my goodness it was soo funny. 

so yeah everyone, even missionaries arent immune from laughing during prayers...

Great to hear from you all!!

love you all so much and we will talk to you next week. 

Elder Whitaker