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      

September 16

Jesse – Phone Call – September 16, 2013

I had the opportunity to talk to Diana last night and Jesse this morning as we shared the news of the passing of their Mema.  Jesse was very much at peace and said that it never felt bad, just peaceful.  I am so glad that he had that blessing.

He was able to talk to me a little about his mission, and it was interesting that he slipped into Spanish and had to think about words in English.  He said that there is one person in their ward who speaks English to him and that it is really strange to hear it.  It is really cold there this week,  it has rained for 6 days straight.  Which is a lot of rain for an Arizona boy. It is cold enough that when you sit in someones house and talk to them you can see your breath.  The people there are amazing.  The young men in the wards teach every Sunday - they teach 30 minute lessons.  The people are very strong in the gospel. But the living conditions are hard which makes him very grateful for the blessings we have.  He only really eats one meal a day - the members usually feed them lunch, which is the big meal of the day there.  They make the lunch and then give it to the missionaries to take back to their apartment to eat.  They drink a lot of Coca-Cola - that is what all of the members give them to drink, Coca-Cola or juices.  They ride the bus everywhere they go, ride the bus and walk.

They brought an investigator to church yesterday and she wants to baptized.  He was excited about that.

He said that is true what they say about missions; "The days are long but the weeks are short".  The days seem long when you are out tracting, but then the weeks fly by.

Diana e-mail - September 16, 2013

Well hello everyone!!

You know grief is a funny thing, it comes in stages sometimes i will be laughing about a happy memory and then all of a sudden i will be in tears. but i am ok i know that families can be together forever. Last night when i found out i cried and when i was going to bed i cried some more but I could feel mema there telling me she was ok even though i was sad and all i was doing was crying i never once thought "i want to go home" I wish i could be there with everyone but being here in Washington is where i am suppose to be and i know i just have one more angel on the other side looking out for me. 

I know that Mema is on a mission and she is probably really busy right now. I am so proud to be in this family!!! Everyone I meet the first thing they hear about is my family because on a scale from 1 to a 100000000 my family is 20000000000000000 on the totally awesome scale and i know Mema feels the same. I know that families can be together forever. I was asked once ' why would you want to give up 18 months of your life for this?" and the answer is because this church is true and it makes me soooooooo happy and i want other people to feel the same happiness i do. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is once again on the earth and i know that My family will be together forever. I am going to be the best missionary i can and i will work hard because i know that's what mema is doing. and i feel better about my future husband because mema is going to help me find him when i get off my mission she is going to pick a good one. well the church is true i love my family and i will keep working hard!

i love you all so very much stay strong and know that the Lord loves us.

love sister whetten 

Diana email - September 10, 2013

Well hello family and friends!!!

 This week has been a good one. We had exchanges on Tuesday and i went to another area near the ocean and  it was beautiful and the people we awesome!! while i was there we tracked into this lady and we hit it off really well and i was so happy to meet her and she wanted to here more about the gospel. well after everything sister Goodrich who has been in that area for a whole year has not been able to get a hold of her the whole time she has been there, so it is intestine that God knows where we need to be and when.

Well transfers are today and I am leaving the Cottage Lake ward =( I have really loved it here and I love my district leader and zone leaders and the people the ward has been so amazing and when I found out i was leaving i started to cry because we just got a new investigator and i really wanted to stay. but i realized because i don't like change the Lord is going to open my eyes and make me like it lol but yeah we go to the mission office today at 2 and i find out there who my new companion is and where i am going.

so back to my week and being where i needed to be sister Nelson and i were companions for a day. Sister Nelson was one of my MTC companions she was the one with the red hair. That was the best day ever we just really needed each other and it was so much fun. we made banana bread and it tasted so good!!!

It is so amazing that the Lord doesn't just listen to my prayers but to his other kids too. lol I get so caught up in my little Diana world that sometimes i forget that i am not the only one. I was able to be the answer to someones prayers and i was blessed to be able to see that, some times the Lord lets us see how he is directing us to help others. and other times we don't need to know.

Heavenly Father is so amazing. The people of Woodinville have left there mark on my heart and I really was and am heart broken that i have to leave. but what that shows me is that i am doing what i am suppose to be doing. Loving the people of Washington and letting them into my heart, because if i didn't care it wouldn't hurt. So Heavenly Father is showing me that love has no boundaries no limits no race or color. my heart is not limited and sooner or later i will learn.

I love you all and I really do feel your prayers on my behave. It gives me so much joy to know that i have such an awesome team of people in my corner backing me up. I hope all of you are able to have missionary experience and remember you don't need a name tag to share the gospel. the gospel is what make you, you and just be yourself, and let the missionaries handle the awkward part lol   Well have a great week and dont forget the Lord will bless us with opportunities to share the gospel when we ask. We where taught once that we as missionaries need to talk to everyone because everyone we meet is a referral from God.

love you lots!!!!

Sister Whetten