January 24, 2011

Dear Family,

We set two baptismal dates this week. They will be my first ones. It is nice to see the fruits of our labor. They have strong testimonies of the gospel and specifically the Book of Mormon. The members are really helpful here. They always want to go out with us and introduce us to their friends. It really helps since contacting is super ineffective. Don't make the missionaries dance around for your references. Just give them to them. It is somewhat of a joke to me when I hear some members say we have to earn their trust before they will give us their references. We are set apart representatives of Jesus Christ that study the gospel every day in preparation to teach. For some that is not enough I guess. For now we have more than we can handle to teach thanks to the reasonable members. 

We were teaching a family the other day when all of a sudden the father grabbed a machete and ran outside. He came back in with a a fruit that looks like a green coconut. They call them pipas . You cut a hole into them and drink the juice out. It was pretty plain tasting but I am told they get sweeter. I have tried so many fruits since getting here. Most I did not know existed. My favorite so far is guyaba. Trying all of the juices here brings me back to vacations in Costa Rica and Guatemala.

All of the missionaries are running out of money this month. I am not sure why because I have almost $20 on my card and $30 in cash that will carry me to the end of the month. 

The mission is really stressing obedience right now. I got an email that said a lot of people will be going home this summer. My zone leader Elder Stoddard from Rocklin, CA, told me that we are the lowest baptising mission in Central America. It may be unfair however to owe it all to disobedience as we also have the most new investigators and investigators going to church. I imagine this is also the hardest mission to marry people from my little experience doing so. Still, they see a lot of room for improvement and there will be a lot of changes. It is frustrating for me to give an accounting for areas that involve the agency of people other than myself such as companionship study and eating dinner at 5 or 9.

I was sorry to hear about Ben. I am glad he was not hurt. Surprisingly, car accidents don't seem to be very common here. For how crazy everyone drives I have not seen one yet. I did see a dead guy in the middle of the road a couple of days ago. There were police everywhere and a huge crowd of people. There is a bar on the side of the street. Apparently the man had gotten drunk and stumbled into the street only to be struck a bus. There was a small blanket draped over him. I may have a future in the CHP. I was good at arriving on the scene, getting lots of information, figuring out what happened.

Anyways, sorry not a lot to write about this week. Just working hard, setting dates. I think I might be developing a water hoarding problem. I will have to look into it. It could just be survival instinct. When I get back home I will be filling up all of our containers with water and bathing with water bottles.

Chao,

Elder Whiting

Photos were included however they are not captioned.

This appears to be the church building with Elder del Angel standing outside. Notice the bars on the windows. Steeple is to the right.

This photo was not captioned. Perhaps a classroom, however the desk at the front suggests that it may be the chapel or multi-use chapel room.

Elder Whiting and an Aaronic priesthood holder.

Any guesses?  Perhaps a bat to the left of the steel pipe. The shadow in the middle of the tree trunk suggests a figure or Christ. The wire coil and rebar on the pipe are interesting.
After Morgan pointed out the central reddish area was a bird......duhhhh....it is probably an Orchard Oriole although the bill looks wrong.