Three months in Argentina!

January 28, 2014

so i hit three months in this country today. so that was fun. i actually just barely realized that. but my companion is leaving. he got transferred to be a zone leader in Rosario. so that will be crazy. we go to the terminal tomorrow to pick up my new comp and drop off Elder Fernandez. my new comp is going to be elder ponce. i don't get how they do transfers here. we just meet in the bus station, swap around a little and leave haha. nothing like they do it in the states. but this way we dont have to lose a full day of work. 

i am excited for this transfer. we have a lot of great people that we have found these past couple weeks. 

Pray list. (cause i remembered today. and we need it)

Victor Espíndola y familia. just need to come to church dangit!!!!! we don't know why they won't come....

Mabel, she got mad we couldn't go in her house cause there wasn't a man. but she is super legit. we are giving her to the hermanas and split the teaching. 

Miguel. church. 

Brenda, so we can meet more and get her to church. 

Jesus y familia. super legit family!!!! but man he is hard headed and she is too busy. her mom is Teresa, that little old lady that the sisters (really us) baptized. but yeah, we just got to really teach them something that will open their minds, and once again, church. 

Aldeli: she is just a super legit contact that i am going to visit this week. so pray that all will go well there. she already has, uh, ganas, desires? to come to church, love her, she is in this letter a little later

CHURCH WITH ALL: it is the church that converts. my converts. they cant read or write. but they knew our church was true when they walked in. just by the feeling. and sadly that is the one thing these people here will not do... 

so i was sleeping a couple days ago, and i heard a really loud hum, then all of a sudden something hit me in the face, i just said, what the!! and got up to turn on the light, just to see a cockroach about the size of your thumb running across my bed. so i got my shoe to kill it, well it went under the bed on the sheet, so i grabbed the sheet to pull it back out, and don't tell me how but a little later, when i couldn't find it, i felt something on my neck, yeah. it was on my back!!!!! haha needless to say i killed it, maliciously. =)

also i was in a dog fight. that was sweet. of about 15 dogs. and i mean literally i was in it. like they were hitting my legs as they battled. we were mid contact when it happened, we just stood there for a while. haha it was funny. but we were chill during all of it. that was fun

oh, it hit 47 degrees Celsius. so yeah. i don't know what that is but i know that 40 is already in the 100s so yeah. but i can translate that for you: HOT

so i have now a new resolve of why i am here. 

i mentioned aldedi. the sweetest old lady ever. lost her husband four months ago. well we were walking, rather late, but we saw her hobbling down the street with these little grocery cart things they use, so we talked to her. and at the end she just thanked us. thanked us for leaving the pamphlet behind at a door contact that wasn't home(which we never do) but one time we did and it was her and it was the plan of salvation. and that she just really needed to talk to us and that we helped her a lot. i don't know. just awesome. i love those little things. 

if someone impacts you, tell them. it will help them more than you think. 

love you all. keep the pics coming. 

and oh, i get to go to an evangelical church this week. cause we told some lady that we would go there if she came to ours. and she did. but she said she liked ours more than hers. her name is Emilia. 

oh and mom, nothing with the package yet. they usually take about 2 months. but letters are coming in about a month.

besitos!!!

Elder Whitaker

Not In Kansas Anymore!

January 20, 2014

so things are going well. 

we are having fun. i just started to goof around more. ha i literally have an ipod in my head and just hit next until i find a good song to sing haha but it keeps me busy. 

this week, uh, nothing epic really happened. we had a sweet baptism. i played the piano at that which was fun, i swear they choose the hardest ones... but when she got baptized, Milagros, which means miracle, that was her name, she came out of the water, and it was different from

Plan of Salvation illustration

all the other baptisms we have had. usually when they come out everyone is like yay and claps, which i didnt like much, but this one, every one was just quiet. and it was so powerful. she just cried and hugged her non member mom who was crying and the sisters. it was just cool.

had a lot of firsts this week. just seein some weird stuff. weird stuff happening. 

we were in the area of the hermanas to eat at a members. oh, guizo, super delicious. but we were walkin out and this guy called us over. so we talk and he was from another town, we were just talking, not teaching or even talking about religion, well then his buddy came... haha just staring us down, well it was his house. well long story short he got mad that we were there and we got thrown out, haha but i thought it was funny. we got a couple blocks away before i let myself laugh. but yeah. good stuff. even getting rejected is funny here. =) 

uh, i forgot to write my notes in my little book so i dont remember anything from this week. 

we put our chairs on the roof last night and passed numbers and stuff which was fun. 

Bryce lives behind Deigo's chicken store!

but yeah, next week is transfers so i will be emailing tuesday and i will let you know whats going on there. its almost guaranteed that my comp leaves. so who knows, he is our district leader, so either they send me one, or i am it. but idk, that scares me. 

 

 so how many of you know how to debone a chicken with out cutting the skin????? oh i do. ha hahaha yeah that was me this morning!!! 

thats diego, i live behind his chicken store and today

Bryce has a new skill!

i was trained is his ways. =) but yeah. having fun. when i get home we are going to debone some chickens and have a legit asado with all

Had to climb the window to get to the roof...

my mission bros and the fam. going to be fun. imma pro at it, but imma be working on it every pday till i leave this area=)

and that is the activity of us on the roof. we had to climb the window to get there but worth it. =)

That is an alfajor and i eat at least one a day, when im healthy. haha they are soo good!! and only 2 pesos!!!!

well its still hot, oh and is the christmas tree still up or can i take down that tree carson sent me?? =) gotta keep the traditions alive. 

love all of you. wish nancy and terry the best of luck ever!!!

Besitos

Elder Whitaker

January 13, 2014

Jan. 13, 2014

ok. so super short review of the week.

we had a leader training wednesday. but im not a leader so while my comp went to that i got to work in rosario. that was super fun. first little taste of being with a comp who cant speak. and i loved it! ha yeah we had fun. played that shirt game scott taught me.

so blew my mind. Peruvian horses dance!!! no time to explain it cause frankly my mind still cant comprehend what i heard. but yeah. it was nuts. so look up videos and tell me if its as crazy as i think. basically they dance on two feet like people. INSANE! an hermana in my district did it at home. ha weird.

so apparently there is a boxing champ named burner whitaker or something. so if you could look that up. everyone keeps talking about him. so yeah.

uh, oh we got caught in a huge rain storm. and yet. i was still sweating. ha that was terrible. we got home completely soaked. we walked in a shower for forty minutes basically.

ha a couple days ago i stopped, sweating, so that was good, but i got nervous and turned on the heater. cant change too fast right? haha

but seriously, i actually got cold this morning. that was awesome! i have used my blanket the last two nights. so yeah. big changes going on down here.

hopefully all is well. the work is going great. having a lot of fun. i have figured out the secret. just be goofy and enjoy it. =) and its working. but these people just refuse to go to church!!! but we are going to change that this week.

funny story. we were contacting. i clapped and this old guy came out looking all grumpy, so i put on the charm and went up to shake his hand and talk to him. when i got there i put out my hand while i was talking, he just looked at me till i stopped, looked at my hand, and said No. hahaha and that was it. hahahaha we ended it and all that routine and left, when we turned the corner, i lost it. haha i laughed so hard. yeah super funny.

"Sign of Destiny"

ha btw. my new nickname is tesoro. we were walking and i said hi to this guy. he said hi to me and i kept walking. but to the sister behind me, a little louder, he said chao tesoro. which means basically see ya treasure. haha but everyone thought he said it to me!!! so yeah. that was kinda funny too. oh and my comp bought a sombrero for the sun. and ha yeah i have too much self respect still to wear one. i will send a pic of it next week. he bought it like two hours ago and loves it. haha

this is my sign of destiny. some day i will play it. we wanted to do it with me elder sisk and elder stevens but we couldnt. elder stevens goes home to utah in two weeks!

elder stevens, elder sisk, and then one other elder  makes up the golf crew. haha people are funny

oh and i have a trial exchange coming up. where you go on exchange with your zone leader, if youre new, and they see if you are ready to take over the area or train. so we will see how that goes. =) but that will be the 21 of this month so there is still time to practice faking like i know what im doing. =)

but yeah i am enjoying myself.

this is me and my comp after getting caught in a huge rainstorm and having to walk thirty minutes in the pouring rain.

Poor Daisy the dog!

the dog is super funny. she used to look like a border collie, but then we left for church one morning, came back and she was shaved! haha and we just joked with it, like oh Daisy what happened!!! and she gets all embarrassed and walks away or backs up awkwardly looking at us haha super funny.

love all you so much!

Besitos de amor!

Elder Whitaker

Bryce and Comp after walking in a huge rainstorm!

Jan. 6, 2013

so this is the baptism of my first miracle. Teresa. she is in the preach my gospel. shes awesome and i will tel you  more later cause we have a bus in five minutes.

our branch pres got hurt. ill explain next week. if you remind me.

then that is a picture of rosario.

fun stuff.

sorry i cant write today. we had a weird pday and yeah. 

but i love all of you and hope you have just the greatest week ever.

dont worry. nothing too epic happened this week. 

Elder Whitaker

Week 18 Merry Christmas and Stuff

so everything is awesome!!! 

Talking last week was super amazing. so good to see all of you again! 

so i forgot to tell about the coolest recent convert ever. Julio. well he is mine, but yeah. hes awesome. 

so we were at his house talking, and trying to arrange a ride for him and his wife to come to the christmas dinner the friday before chirstmas. well he stopped us. and got like super focused. and i knew he was about to blow some minds. and he did. he looked at me and said, if you cant find me one, dont worry, i will find one, if i cant, i will call a taxi. i am not going to miss one meeting or activity.... i have a lot of faith elder. 

yeah. awesome!!!!!!! 

oh. so we arent allowed to play any sports with anyone not a missionary. 

so we were walking through the park and these guys were playing soccer, and the ball came rolling toward me. and not to say that im a rebel, but i totally kicked it back like ten feet to the guy. its whatever though. he seemed pretty impressed. =)

oh. so mom, with those spices.... you nailed it!!! oh my gosh. so we now have the ability to taste stuff!! its awesome. so my comp cooks, every day, i clean, thats just how it is. well now that i have that, i was like, psh, i can do this. so i cooked chicken. i put that stuff on there and it was cooking. he was walking up to me and i looked at him and said, in english, I dont even know what im doing. but like smiley and all reassuring. haha he smiled and gave me a thumbs up and left. hahaha no idea what i said. super funny. =) 

oh and i remembered something. your Crack Donuts. Scott knows exactly what im talking about. those biscuits fried with that frosting. yeah how do i do that. i am going to try and find somehting like that here but at least i need to learn that frosting. =) 

but all is well. doing great. 

had a sweet lesson yesterday. got a referral. taught him and he is getting baptized the 18. he is super legit. and he has two kids and a wife. so that will be fun. 

love you all so much!!

muchos besitos

Elder Whitaker                     Bryce got to be in the water 

                                           to help Julio (the elderly man)

                                           lift his son, Antonio, out of 

                                           the water after he was

                                           baptized.

Bryce's Morning Workout!  Whatever it takes!!

Week 17

Week 17
December 17, 2013 Crazy how fast time goes. and then you look back and a full six weeks of work is in one little book. crazy. but this week was fun. i think. im basically delirious. its so hot!!! we are hitting like 40 degrees Celius. even at night i am sweating!! i woke up on monday in the night and rolled to my other side, and the side hitting the sheets was wet!!!! i checked to make sure the rest of the bed wasnt because i thought it rained or something!!!! hahaha too much sweat for one skinny little man. but at least we have cold showers. well most of the time. i swear. here, the hot and cold knobs are literally just suggestions. last week i had the cold all the way and and the hot totally off and the water came out steaming! finding the right temp was hard enough with one knob and now with two in argentina, its like making a space shuttle out of peanut butter. haha so i cant remember if i told you. but yeah the whole country was like on fire last week. but this week its chill. we werent allowed to be out after dark but today they put it back so that will be good. i wont lie though. it was nice to come back and have some extra time to get stuff done. uh. oh we had our huge christmas party. wow that feels like forever ago. but that was way fun. the night before though. i was on split with our ZL; not Sisk=( but we were talking and two scooters flew by and the member said right then, man they are going to crash one of these times. and that second we heard em crash. hahaha epic. they ate it hard. one guy and his girlfriend got up and just left and left the other guy bleeding in the street. but like sixty people went to help. apparently not much happens in that neighbor hood. but the party was sweet. way fun. i just talked to Gorringe and reid the whole time. mom do you remember mason reid! from elementary. he did karate and stuff. we hung out like twice. or in those days, we played like twice haha. but yeah he is here. we had a sweet skit. super funny. I was a donkey. and totally crushed it. Luke 3 verse 11. look it up and then read the last line of my letter. uh i gave a talk. that was fun. and was able to do it like normal. just wrote notes and scriptures and got up and talked. not just reading it. so that felt good. mark anthony vivir mi vida is my favorite song. its on every wehere we go and is awesome so thats what they listen to here. oh I saw the sign and stereo hearts as well were on. haha shout out to scott with I saw the sign. haha but thats all i got. for ya. love you all so much and we will SEE YOUR FACES NEXT WEEK!!!! AHH Elder Whitaker uhh Lloyd, its the Rockies. hahaha it was written in my scriptures already. hahaha i almost died.