Jesse E-mail - October 7, 2013

this week has had its ups and downs there were some pretty crazy things that happened here in Argentina. we had a man have a seizure on the bus and we had to all transfer to another bus. ill leave out a lot of the other stories that i probably shouldn't share with my momma but this definitely isn't the U.S.! things are different and the way people handle things are different too. but on the good side the work is still going forward! i was able to watch conference in English along with the other English missionaries. i watched it in English so i could get the most out of it. yes i can understand a lot of what they say in Spanish but English is just better because its not translated. we also got our recent convert and her grand-daughter to go to the conference! its such a great feeling that she is still making progress in the gospel and that she is sharing it with her family! the girl is 9 yrs old i think i told you about her last week. but she has a fetcha for the 20th of this month! and she really reminds me of Minnie! i have a picture in my white bible that i carry around and it has our family in it and when i show people it they think the girls are 17 and 15 haha they judge age by size here so they think I'm like 26 because I'm 190 centimetros. I'm still learning so much everyday and probably will be for the next 21 more months. the time is continuing to go by too fast, i feel like 2 years isn't long enough already! things are normal for us here i still haven't received any more letters but i will keep my fingers crossed. i love you too mom 

Your son, Elder Whetten

Diana E-mail October 7, 2013

Hello Family and friends!!!!

This week has been a really good one!! My companion got a little sick this week and i really don't want to be sick so i took some on guard, and my mom gave me this little book on how to use essential oils and i was reading the different ways  you can use the oils and one of the things said to put a few drops  under your tongue and well you all know me and mom wasn't around to tell me any better so i tried it. it was so nasty my lips went numb. but hey i am not sick so i wont complain. 

 WASN'T CONFERENCE GREAT !!!!!!! Oh my goodness i loved it so much everyone gave such amazing talks. The one talk that answered my prayers was Elder Holland! I love that man!! I have been having a hard time and i have been really hard on myself and i could start feeling myself starting to fall into depression and Elder Holland when he was speaking i was just crying really hard i think the guy sitting next to me thought i was crazy. but it was so good. Did you all hear Elder Ballard's talk He promised that if everyone would bring one person by Christmas something would happen i have to go back and read it. but that doesn't matter lol everyone find someone by Christmas. 

Oh my goodness i can not believe its October!! Where is all this time going? Well we have a few people we are teaching. We have a family that has been meeting with the missionaries for about 14 years and they are so ready to be baptized. There oldest son graduated for seminary and is now attending BYU Provo. They are so amazing they are dry Mormons they live most of the commandments and yeah all that is holding them back is that the mom Min is wanting to hear a voice form God telling her this is the true church and of course Heavenly Father doesn't answer us like that we have to do our part we have to read the book of mormon study out in our minds and then we pray for an answer and them God will give you the answer but not in the ways we as humans expect. So we are teaching her about how we recessive answers from God. so if you want can you pray for this family there last name is Chins. I know God will help this family find the truth. 

So the Chins took sister Leung and i out for lunch and oh my goodness i had really Chinese food and it was so good. super wok doesn't have anything on this place! i don't think i will ever be able to eat Chinese food the same. Oh i also had Korean pancakes and they had shrimp and SQUID in them the were actually really good so Anthony i beat you to it lol. 

 the weather has been really good this week nice and sunny the weather hear kind of reminds me of the what it feels like in Arizona around thanks giving time. THE TREES CHANGE COLOR!!!!!!!!! It is the coolest thing ever the trees look like they are on fire. I have taken some leaves and put them in my journal for save keeping. oh so we live in Bellevue and we live a little ways out of down town Bellevue and anyways where i live i can see downtown Seattle and Bellevue and it is the most beautiful thing i have ever seen!! 

So I haven't changed to much i mean i have grown up a lot and my testimony is growing but for the normal Diana stuff i am still me i lose everything actually i lost the car keys and i was freaking out because these are the Lords keys and the Lords car and i have no idea why he trust me with something like this but he does and i am doing my best. anyway i lost the keys and they where gone and i said a prayer and i went to my purse where i had dumped everything out already and there they where. I still break everything. Its a good thing i am a missionary because for a normal person well being me i would be so lost. i am so white i mean i was white before i came out but know i am really white i feel like my hair is getting darker but the truth is my skin is just getting white ='( oh well hopefully when i go back home i will just burn really good once and my tan will come back.

 Thank you all so much for your prayers. They are truly needed and appreciated. I love you all so much and i hope you are all happy and excited. we have just heard from the Prophet and he has called us all out. the word must go out and we are the ones caring it so lets not just be hears of the word but lets be doers also. there is opportunities all around us to share. well i love you all again and enjoy the sun for me cuz i miss it :D

Love Sister Diana Marie Whetten

Pictures from Argentina

Jesse E-mail September 30, 2013

this week was much better than last week! so many blessings happened its hard to tell them all! but the highlight of this week was definitely baptizing our investigator! and yes i had the opportunity to do the baptizing! just a few things about maria! she is a really happy and energetic lady and really wanted to know about the gospel from the start. she always wanted us to come around and just share more with her so we did! haha and she has 9 kids! which is average for Argentina which is crazy. oh and she is also 70 years old!! yeah she had her last kid when she was 58!!!! haha he is 12 right now and to me that is just unheard of but alot of things happen around here that I've never seen or heard of before! the baptism was really good we had it done as a zone so there were i think about 6 other kids that were being baptized. the whole experience was just great but one of the things that stuck in my mind was something that happened right before. when we are waiting in the chapel in our white clothes i had my name tag on but right before we did the baptizing i handed my nametag to my companion. and this is what i thought of it

that in the end it really doesn't matter who does the baptizing, all that matters is that i helped bring one of gods children home. not home yet but shes on that course! and that just made me so happy! the spirit was strong and everything was perfect for that split moment:) then yesterday she received the Holy Ghost and i was also asked to participate in that. and i know you've heard the quote that exact obedience brings miracles. and a couple days before the baptism my companion and i practiced this. and i think it paid off:) yesterday in church we were waiting for sacrament meeting to start and a young woman walked up to us and said this "i want to be baptized in this church" i just smiled! we now have a lesson with her today after P-day is over! 

other than that there's just alot of dead dogs and sketchy streets:P i am safe though so don't worry! i hope you are all happy and know that i pray for you! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! 

Love Elder Whetten!!

Diana Email - September 30, 2013

Well Hello friends and Family!!!!! 

 This week has been a really good one!! we had interviews with President Choi and Sister Choi and I know I have said I loved them before but i really really really love!!! i adore them!!! They are called of God and I am so grateful to be able to call myself one of there missionaries. So i think i told you last week that we were going to sing "I am a child of God" in Korean well we sang it last night for the Korean branch and it was such an amazing experience. it was a fireside and President and Sister Choi spoke and it was really cool because they spoke in Korean!!! they talked about families. we where able to use the head sets for a translator. but just saying my mission president is to ligit!!!!!!! Well i did get to go to the broad cast and it was amazing. It was a good reminder of the covenants we have made and what we need to do to remind us everyday how we should live.I love listening to President Monson!! Prayer is so important and i loved what he said and i cant wait to read his talk again. We also had exchanges this week and that mean i went to a different are and was able to get advice and counsel from my sister training leaders. it was fun!! so its been raining and dad you are right it does not rain in Arizona. it was fun to go tracking in the rain but it was really cold. 

So I was able to see Gods hand in my life this week. So from the minute i got off the plane in Seattle i knew i was going to need a pair of boots but i don't have a whole lot of money and i didn't want to ask my family to get me anything else because they have done so much for me so i told my self that if i really needed boots God would prepare a way for me to get them so i left it alone but on Saturday when we went tracking my shoes we soaked and i knew i was going to need to get some boots so i looked in my purse and i had 29 dollars enough to buy a cheap pair of boots. but i also knew it was going to be fast Sunday and as missionaries we don't have to pay tithing  but they do tell us to pay fast offerings and i knew that if i paid fast offings i wasn't going to have enough to get boots but i remembered the faith that my parents have that when we give to the Lord he will in turn give to us. so i paid it and the lady we live with sister cook was trying to find a store where i could go get some boots so she was asking around and the young women's pres. had a pair and she gave them to me. so just know that the Lord does take care of his missionaries. i love you all so much and miss you everyday!!!

love Sister whetten

Jesse Email - September 23, 2013

well this week was a little harder than others, there weren't many people who were willing to listen to us. when we knocked on the doors they would usually tell us to go away and that they didn't want to hear what we had to share with them. that was a little rough but good things happened too. we found a few more new investigators and hopefully they decide to stay with the lessons because people start the lessons but don't always finish them. its normal for missionary work but new to me. over here on this side of the equator things are warming up a little more. after having 6 full days without the sun and only rain and wind it felt great to see the sun again! spring here is just as bad here as there haha allergies are a pain! and I'm getting fat:P  not really,I've just lost all my muscle because i don't work out in the mornings.  soccer is amazing here! and there isn't a time that someone isn't playing in the streets,on a court, or in a field! down here there are two major teams that everyone likes. one team is River(Ree-ver) and Boca. and pretty much your either cheering for one team or the other, there is NO in between!! my companion is a fan of boca, and not knowing this beforehand i chose River!! there colors are read and white and bocas colors are blue and yellow. we both have jersies for the opposing teams and we laugh about it alot. i pray for the family and hope you are all happy:) time continues to just fly by for me, its both good and bad. i think i told you this last week but my companion has never dipped his cookies in milk before so I'm showing him the ways of America!! and i made tacos today and he loved them so much he had 9 of them! we are eating a little better now:P  i think i eat a bag of galletas in two days:P so that's probably why I'm hefty :P oh and galletas are cookies! a very important word here!

I Love you so much Momma:)

ELder Whetten!

Diana email - September 23, 2013

Hello Family and Friends, 

 So this week was ok. I have done a lot of growing, and learning. I have learned that when there is a problem in a relationship you have to talk. ignoring or avoiding the issue doesn't help it just makes it worst.  another thing is that there is more ways then one to communicate. Like I said in my letter last week my companion is from Hong Kong so not only do we look different we grew up in different cultures. She is so obedient and doesn't question anything. she does as she is told and i love that about her. it makes things easy for her, but for me i have to know why we have some rules and in the Seattle Mission (the best mission ever!!!) they have a lot of rules and i have a harder time just doing as i am told. and there's some things we have to work through but we have amazing leaders and Heavenly Father is well aware of me and sister Leung. We were put together for a reason and i need to learn and grow from her and visa versa. 

 So we have elders in our ward too.  our ward has 2 sets of missionaries and its a lot of fun, different but fun. so anyway one of the Elders, Elder Williams is from Thatcher!!!!!!! So we talk about home all the time. he was called to go to Argentina but he still hasn't gotten his visa so he has been reassigned to Washington. so yeah its really cool.

We have a mission choir and i am in it. we are practicing "a child's prayer " it sounds really good,  in my stake we have a Korean branch so all of the missionaries in this zone are going to learn "i am a child of God" in Korean. I am so excited!!!!!!

On Sunday i was asked to give a talk. it was a lot of fun. I read them one of my all time favorite scriptures John 15 : 16 - 27 read it and tell me what you think. the ward is super nice, i love it so much. we have a family the Mannie's and brother Mannie is teaching me how the play the ukalalie.  we live with a member and i just found out that she is really smart. like changed to world smart. she is a scientist and she works with DNA and she has done amazing things,look her up for me please her name is Linda Cook. 

I love being a missionary!!! there is honestly no way to fully explain how much i love the church of Jesus Christ. I am so happy and the knowledge that i gain from the spirit just makes me even happier. Families can be together forever! Jesus Christ knows me and loves me all the same my good my bad and my ugly he loves it all. Joseph Smith did see God the father and Jesus Christ! The Book of Mormon is the word of God! I don't have to guess and hope that these things are true I don't believe these things are true I know that they are true my faith has helped me gain knowledge and i am so thankful for that. I love you all so very much and if you are having a hard time be specific when you pray tell Heavenly Father how you feel and what you are having a hard time and you need to have faith that he is listening and you will feel his arms around you know that we are all Gods children.

Love Sister Whetten