Jesse - August 4

Alright so i dont know where i should start but ill just say that this week was great! my old companion and great friend Castillo left and i got Elder Olsen, and my mom already found his mom and are talking about it:P hopefully i get a Latin companion next so then they dont know too many details:P so being the district leader wasn't exactly what i wanted to do this transfer but i kinda like it, i was really stressed that i was just going to kill it and the district wouldn't have baptisms until i left but i guess it went by a little better than that haha last monday(my first day as district leader) i had to do a baptismal interview that night, in a city that i had never traveled to haha we got lost.... we ended up geting off the bus about 3 miles too early and had a good talk on the way. but when we finally made everything turned out great. he was baptised last saturday! even though i didnt get to teach him the lessons or anything i kinda felt a connection with the guy. its a little weird how things liike that happen. then this transfer a whole bunch of things were changed that the district leaders have to do so im part of a first generation haha well during the week with all the stress and the pressure that was put on me i felt like i was really sucking it up and the area was going to pieces. well yesterday for me was a blessing. we had more less actives in sacrament than members and a lot of them bore their testimonies, one of the less actives that we brought was an old time friend of the bishop and when he bore his testimony the bishop was a little emotional and it really helped me know that WE were doing a good job and not completely destroying the area:P and one more thing, Silvio the 23 year old man we baptized last week received the aaronic priesthood, and i got to do it. it was my first time giving the priesthood to somebody and saying the blessing so i was terrified when they asked me to do it haha but that was the first time i could really feel like i was receiving heavenly help that strongly. i wont go into too much details but the point is that im doing great and finally found that real desire to share what i know is true, i know as usual im late but then again, maybe im just in time:) im still a little jealous that we have a puppy and im not even there to enjoy it! Mom...ive never had a puppy before, what a deprived child i am:) so when i get home i will put the stress upon myself to get you another puppy:)you know.. just in case fred decides to stroke:P i love you all, im doing great and at this point have lost the majority of my muscle so now all i can really do now is parkour and play soccer...what a bummer;) ohh and there are a lot of snakes here hahaha

Elder Whetten:D

Diana - August 4

Hello everyone!!! Well this week was pretty sweet. NO dad I didn't lick it lol but Sister Prows and i are working hard to work with the members. We have been meeting a lot of less actives and it has been great to see how I can help when I get home. I am going to be the best member missionary ever!! Sunday was the best though. we asked some people to share there testimonies about missionary work and it was so amazing to see that there are so many ways to do missionary work it is not just one way of doing it. It is so great that Heavenly Father uses our weaknesses and our strengths to help everyone else around us.  It is so amazing to see!! Well I think a year of not going to the dentist and eating a lot of sweats has taken its toll on you poor teeth they are hurting so i have to go get them checked out = ( but it will all be good. Well 6 weeks has gone by quick transfers are next week and I think I am leaving but every time i think that i stay sister prows will stay it will be her last transfer. but anyway I love you all and i hope you are having the time of you life. oh before i end something really cool i heard yesterday is that we all have many many many verses to our song and it will not sound very good if we try to sing them all at once so sing one at a time and enjoy where you are right now. 

love you all and have a great week!! 

Diana - Email - July 28

So to start off this email i just want to tell you what i had for breakfast and I know that it is going to worry mom and make you all think i am gross but its what i was in the mood for and i have no money lol so this morning i woke up and i looked in my food and i have cereal but i have no milk so that would not do but i did see popcorn and honey. so this popcorn had EXTRA butter on it and i thought that would not be good for breakfast so i popped the corn and put honey on it to make it more like a breakfast it was really good and now i am not hungry lol it was yummy!! 

  Well on to my week it was really good nothing to exciting happened we saw some people and laughed but on Saturday we decided to walk all day to save on miles and so we did. We walked from 200th to 137th and back. we walked a little more than 13.5 miles. and i know to Jesse its nothing but i have had a car my whole mission and we only walk when we really want to.(which is NEVER) who want to walk when you have a car? anywho we walked all day and when we got home for the night i took a bath and then we went to bed. but even though i was tried and i wanted to give up so many times i just kept going and we talked to a lot of really nice people. 

 That was are big adventure this week. I have an amazing companion!!! 

So my little spiritual thought this week.So my whole life i have hated myself I am always making fat jokes about myself I tell myself that i am dumb that i talk to much that i am ugly. All of these really nasty things that i would never in a thousand years want to say to others. It has been really bad on my mission and its so bad that all 7 of my companions have had to set aside time to tell me that i need to love myself. every time I have this conversation with anyone I just don't think there is anything good about me. But if we go to the scriptures. Christ was asked the Question "what is the greatest commandment?" and he answered " Love thy God with all thy heart all thy mind and all they strength." " and the Second is like unto it love thy neighbor as THY SELF." so how can you fully love others when you don't love yourself? the answer is you cant! you can not love others fully until you can love yourself. 

 Sister prows is helping me change and it is not going to happen over night but something i have to always remember I WILL NOT BE PERFECT IN THIS LIFE!!! I wont. it is impossible there are to many things i do wrong everyday, but I have to try everyday to be better then yesterday and try better tomorrow then today. I will mess up I will fail but God my Heavenly Father made me all of me every little thing about me he put there for a reason. and how ungratefully of me when i pray and ask him to change something he thinks is perfect just the way i am. 

 so I am changing and I will like myself in a healthy way. and these are the things i have to remember everyday " There will ALWAYS be someone better then me, and there will ALWAYS be someone worse then me" God does not expect perfection of me today then why should I expect perfection of myself. And i don't need others to come up with excuses for me  i do good on my own. 

but anyway God loves me and I know yall love me because you wouldn't put up with me if you didn't lol but just like President Uchdorf  said the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago the next best time is today. so start today to be what you wanted to be yesterday. I love you all so much and i am so grateful for all of you in my life!! I know that the Book of Mormon is true i know God lives and I know That families are together forever!!! be happy!!!  

Jesse E-mail - July 28

So this week was a mixture of things, but i think it was leaning more towards amazing. On Saturday we were able to have that baptism we had planned for! his name is Silvio Alba! he is 23 years old and he understands everything we teach him. he is also the investigator that we were able to take to the temple last week. the crazy thing is that it only took him 3 weeks to understand everything, take all the lessons, and be baptized! usually it takes a little bit longer than that but he just dove in with faith. somehting i wish i could do! the baptism was great and the spirit was definitely present. he even gave his testimony to end it and it made my eyes sweat a little bit hearing how strong he was spiritually. he went on to say that he wasn't going to grow away from the church and he would endure to the end and do all that he could to learn more and more. the following day my companion and i were able to join in the circle to give him the gift of the holy ghost, and i wont even try to describe that moment. but something that's even better is that silvios older brother Roman is now going to be baptized on the 9th of August! and his very own brother silvio is planned to do his baptism!! now that is somethin that i cant wait for! i dont think i will be able to hold back the tears that day but ill do my best:P also just yesterday the mission president gave me a big surprise. last week we found out that my companion Elder Castillo would be leaving on Monday and another missionary would be coming to be the district leader here in the area. well i think i got a little too comfortable, after all its been a full year with no calling and just being the Junior companion. but the thing is that i love being the junior companion...less to worry about. well last night at 10:40  i got a fone call that changed all of that in a matter of seconds. i got a call telling me that my companion changed to Elder Olsen from utah,my first Yankee as they say here:P and that i would be the new district leader here:P so now i have a new calling and im super stoked about it! and in about one hour i have to do my first baptismal interview so im already  being thrown into action. well thats about all the excitement that i have for you all today so i hope you enjoy!

Love, Elder Whetten

Argentina Pictures!!

 we have a huge stadium in our area!! last saturday a local team played against an italian team it was legit!

 a bolivian family that we were teaching but then moved:( 

another family that gives us amazing dinners!!

 sivios baptism!!!

 BAPTISM!!!!

saying goodbye to families with my old companion

the shirt i burned for the year mark 

 my last day with my companion!

 arrived to argentina with these 2 guys!!

 i met this one and he left for his house today:P

Diana - Email - July 21

Talofa Family!!!

Well things have been great Sister Prows and I have been working really hard to get to know everyone in the ward and it is great!! we are truly finding great success in working with the members. We have been sharing with them Mormon messages and it is great there are a lot of really good ones.

I have been losing weight i mean not a ton but hey its a working progress!! The sun has been shining and it has felt so good but its not a dry heat, its humid here and i don't like that part but hey sun is sun so i wont complain too much. sad part is that i am still really white i am pretty sure that it doesn't matter how long you are out in the sun you will always be white if you stay here in Washington. 

I am so glad things are going great for all of you i love you and pray for you all the time! i miss you so much and i am so excited to see you next year lol I love being a missionary and there is nothing else in the world that can compare. 

so the other day i was reading in 3 nephi and it was the part where they everything is destroyed and I had a question come to me ' Why did the nephites have all the destruction when the Jews were the ones who killed Christ?"  and so i pondered that question and if you think about it the nephities had so much knowledge given to then they knew about the people in Jerusalem they knew and rejoiced of the birth of the Christ child. they had so many things given to them and they did not live up to the expectations that the Lord had set for them so remember the more you gain the harder your fall if you ever turn away from the Lord. I have seen it so much on my mission i meet people who served  great missions saw amazing things and now they are not living a very good life they think they are happy but so did the Nephties so the great and dreadful day is coming Great for those who are righteous and dreadful for those who procrastinate the day of there repentance! 

any way just wanted to share that with you i hope you all know that i love you and miss you see you in 6 months!!!

love, sister Whetten   

Jesse E-mail - July 21

this week has been another neat one! we are currently preparing for a baptism that we have this Saturday! ohh and this same investigator even went to the temple with us on Saturday! and probably the coolest thing happened there. we had three investigators with us on this trip and we took two of them inside of the temple to the waiting room and we just sat there in silence and felt the spirit very strongly. his name is Silvio and while he was in the temple he began to pray. and at one point he started to cry and i couldn't have been happier. its been a while since I've seen a baptism from my service but i am certain that he is going to be a great leader in the church. . who knows maybe he will even serve a mission like maxi!and on the way home from the temple we got home a little later than we planned because the double Decker bus we had rented got a flat tire!! so we got to know the ward a lot better than we had! and of course it happened s we were on a bridge so there was some heavy traffic we spent about an hour and a half waiting for the bus driver to change it but it was a great trip i have some great photos of the temple trip that i need to send too so i will do that later! other than that we are doing great here in Argentina. working hard and enjoying every minute i have here. the members are getting into the mission work a little more now and it makes things alot easier for us. one of the members that we helped reactivate now wants to go out and teach with us so he can prepare to go on the mission! things are looking great, this is the last week before we have changes so we will see what happens. not much else has happened but I'm happy and doing great, ohh and next week i will send pictures of the shirts we will be burning together because me and my companion completed a year together and we even go home on the same day haha i love you all and hope to hear from you soon!!

Elder Whetten