GOODBYE FESITRANH!

March 24, 2014

Hermana Whittle and her new companion, Hermana Marquillos, from Guatemala. She makes McKenzie look tall! 

Hermana Whittle and her large load of laundry to do before transfers.

Hermana Whittle with the Yanez family, who were really
involved in missionary work in Fesitranh.

Hermana Bahr, Hermana Whittle and Elder Eulogio from Peru--- at transfers.

Hi everyone!

So this past week has been SO crazy for me. I had changes and I had to leave my first area. It was SUPER hard for me to do...I had a rough time the first couple days because my last companion was(is) my best friend and I had to leave her and go to a completely new place with a ton of people I don't know. But things are getting better. I actually only moved over one area, which was a surprise for me. I am a little more in the city now. My area is called Los Castaños...it was weird at first because I had driven through this area a lot before. My new companion is Hermana Marroquin. She is from Guatemala and she is tiny! But I really like her and we get along well :) She is super funny. So that has been hard but things are getting better! 

We don't have a ton of super awesome investigators but we are working! We do have a family that has a lot of potential...and they are married. That is a big deal here. So we are hoping that things will go well with them. They came to church yesterday for the first time...we will keep working with them.

I hope things are going well for you all! Don't ever let your fear impede your faith! :)

Hna. Whittle

Hermana Whittle with Elder and Hermana John- a senior couple who were serving in Honduras.  They helped the missionaries a lot.
Hermana Whittle was sad to see them go home.

Hermana Bahr and Hermana Whittle celebrating their last night as companions.  They really grew to love each other and developed a great friendship! 

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!

March 17, 2014

Hermana Bahr and Hermana Whittle

"One of the 'joys' of missionary work" :)
Great tan lines!

Some p-day fun! 

I do not understand how time goes so slow yet so fast at the same time...

Nothing too exciting happened this week...it was just weird, since it was the last week of this change. We had stake conference this weekend. On Saturday night everyone talked about missionary work...my companion was one of the speakers. I just really  hope that it helped the members realize how important missionary work is...because we need help and right now we aren't getting it. Then on Sunday we watched a broadcast from Salt Lake for all of the stakes in Central America. It was great! Elder Scott and Elder Oaks both spake, along with a couple other people. And Elder Scott gave his talk in spanish, which was SUPER weird at first. It was a really good conference though!

Hermana Bahr, Hermana Whittle and Elder Dawson after Stake Conference.

Hermana Whittle and her District after Stake Conference

My companion and I recieved a tender mercy from the Lord this week. So, in the mission sometimes we have to do divisions where we are with a different missionary for a whole day. And my companion and I hate them, mostly because we get along so well and don't want to be separated. So on Tuesday we had to do divisions with the other hermanas in our district. But then we found out that we were going to have to do them again on Friday with the sister training leaders. We were not very happy because it was our last week together and we already had to do them once. And on thursday, I actually got a little sick and I was hoping that somehow I would be able to get out of doing them. But then Thursday night, they called us to cancel divisions. They said they had prayed about it and they didn't feel like they should do them...WHAT. We were so happy :)

Being a missionary is really tough. This is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done. But watching people change and come unto Christ is one of the best feelings ever! There is an inactive man here who told us that he couldn't ever come back to church and he didn't really want to talk to us. But we went to visit him last week and we met his 11 year old daughter who really wants to come to church...and now he wants to learn and come back. I LOVE IT!

Have a great week!

Hermana Whittle

Hermana Bahr and Hermana Whittle making tortillas
 at the home of a less active member.

A beautiful view of the mountains in Honduras.

This week was SO LONG. 

A lot of our investigators that were doing super great are having problems now. We have these two awesome investigators named Dunia and her daughter Vilma. Their family is my favorite family...I feel at home when we go over to their house. And so they have been coming to church and making friends and everything and doing super great. So we had a lesson with them last week and we were planning on giving them a baptismal date. So we started off and it was going SUPER well. I bore my testimony at one point and seriously I could feel the spirit so strong it felt like my chest was going to explode. It was crazy. And then the lesson got really weird. Vilma accepted a baptismal challenge but Dunia started acting kind of weird. She kept changing the subject and avoiding the question. I just remember I left that lesson feeling really confused and kind of depressed because I was really hoping for them to get baptized before I left the area(because I think I am leaving soon). We will keep trying.

But on the bright side we had two investigators get baptized last week! Katy(12) and Antony(10) who are the niece and nephew of Marcario, our convert that got baptized a couple months ago. It was so cute to watch them get baptized! They were so excited for each other and they shared their testimonies...it was so sweet. Those two kids and Marcario's daughter Vania that just got baptized are going to be so strong in the church...I know it!

Thats all I've got. It is still super hot here and it is only supposed to get worse...hopefully I will get to go somewhere a little cooler soon! Have a great week!

Hna. Whittle

Hermana Bahr, Hermana Whittle with Katy, Antony, Vania and another child. 

Katy, Vania and Antony

Hermana Bahr and Hermana Whittle having dinner with 2 of their investigators.

¡¡5 meses ya!!

Hermana Bahr and Hermana Whittle with their investigator, Evelyn, whose father and sister were baptized about a month ago.

Celebrating P-day today with some yummy ice cream! :)

Hey everyone! I can't believe I have been on a mission for 5 months...its crazy! 

This has been a week full of ups and downs. We were sitting in District Meeting on Tuesday and in District Meeting, we always talk about our investigators. We write the dates of the upcoming saturdays and we talk about our investigators and who has a baptismal date for what day and what challenges they have and stuff. So we were doing that and Hna Bahr and I realized that we had a TON of investigators up on the board...the Lord is blessing us so much. We have been working hard and now we are starting to see the fruits. I know He is helping us out even though the members don't want to help us and our citas are always falling!

We have one investigator named Gaby that we are super worried about. She has a lot of problems in her life and with her family. She is living with her mom and her brother and they are bad influences for her. She really needs to find a job and live somewhere else because being in that house is not good for her. We are trying to do all we can to help her, but we just don't know what to do. She already knows that the church is true and she wants to change...we will just keep praying.

So one day last week our cita fell through and so we decided to go stop by this lady that we have only taught one time. So we were just standing there talking to her, and she was completely ignoring me and talking to my companion. If she had a question about me she would just ask Hna. Bahr, even though I would answer her questions. Like once she looked at my nametag and asked Hna Bahr how to pronounce my name instead of asking me. It was really starting to bug me. And then she told Hna. Bahr that she needed to take care of me because I was humble and I didn't know Spanish(even though I was right there and I understood every word she said). So Hna. Bahr was like, "Umm she speaks spanish and she understands everything you are saying" and I also told her that I understood. POR FAVOR. It was pretty funny though!

I hope you are all doing well and that you have a good week!

Hna. Whittle

Hermana Whittle and Hermana Bahr

IT IS HOT!

Hey everyone! I had another good week this week. It is just SO HOT. Every night I go to write in my journal and the first thing I always think is "It was so hot today". Welcome to Honduras.

One of the members in our ward owns a bilingual school and is the principal of it. Last week they put on a little camp for some of the students where they had little classes and played games and fun stuff like that...kind of like a mini EFY. But they invited my companion and I to go and teach a little part of it. So we taught the kids about having a good reputation and why its important to work hard and things like that. And we did it in English...it was super weird! But it was a neat experience.

Yesterday, one of our favorite investigators, Dunia, and her daughter Vilma came to church with us. Vilma is 19 and she is super pretty, so all of the RMs in our ward were in love with her. It was hilarious! There isn't a separate branch for young single adults here, so they just have a separate class in our ward. And all of the guys wanted us to tell her to come to their class but they didn't want to do it themselves. And then they all wanted her to go to an activity they had last night. We just need to get her baptized...and all of the guys are willing to help us now :)

Thats about all I've got for this week! Love you all!

Hna. Whittle

Making pupusas with a member in Fesitranh.

HOLA!

Hermana Whittle and Hermana Bahr with a member that has been helping them work with their investigators.

Hi everyone! So remember how I said that last week was bad? Well this week was super great! SUPER great. I realized just how important attitude is in the mission. If you are positive and don't let Satan get you down, life is a lot better. Trust me!

We had some pretty awesome experiences this week. We have been searching out inactive members in our area and we have a list to help us. So we went to go find someone on our list and the first time we went no one was home. So we went again later in the week and the lady that lives there now is the sister of the person we were searching for. But she is awesome! She used to live somewhere else and while she was there she had a ton of elders teach her...she was telling us how she would do things with the elders all the time.  We were so excited to find her! It is crazy that someone that has been so involved with missionaries has been able to stay hidden here for so long. She was meant for us!

We have another investigator named Gaby that we have really been working with. She accepted a baptismal date this week! It was kind of funny...we asked her if she would prepare to be baptized on March 1 and her answer was, What time? BEST ANSWER EVER! She is really great. She already knows that the church is true...she just has a ton of problems with her family and her past. We found out a lot about her past yesterday. It was crazy and a little discouraging. But we are ready to help her this week and we will keep working with her!

We also had a multi zone conference this week and it was really good! I always learn so much from those, and they always lift me up. Plus it was awesome to see other missionaries!

Thanks for your support! Have a great week!

Hna. Whittle

Some elders and hermanas from Hermana Whittle's zone on transfer day.

Hermana Whittle making dinner with their investigators. 

Hermana Whittle with her banana soda and her baleada.

Hermana Whittle and Hermana Bahr made valentines for all of the missionaries in their zone. 

The hermanas in her district on p-day!

The miserable faces are because it is sooo hot! And it's not even summer yet! 

Happy 4 months!

A sister was baptized by the Elders in Hermana Whittle's District.

Hey everyone! So this week was kind of long and crazy because both my companion and I got sick(it was the stomach flu or something)...it was TERRIBLE. First she got sick last Monday, and at first we didn't think too much of it because she has had a lot of problems her whole mission. But then on Thursday, I got super sick too.So we think it was a virus or something that is going around because other people have been sick too. It was rough though. We were also getting kind of depressed from being inside all day...so we tried to leave and we made it about 10 minutes before we decided to go back home because we weren't well. So we went home and we called Hermana Dester, president's wife, and talked to her a little bit. And then she called us again and told us that her and president were going to come visit us. So they came and talked to us a little and then he gave us blessings. It was awesome! Our mission president must really love us...it pays to be a good missionary!

We also found an awesome investigator named Pilar this week! She gets so excited for us to visit her, and she is so sensitive to the spirit. She was able to recognize the spirit during our lesson and she was super excited to go to church with us and read the Book of Mormon. It was a really powerful lesson. I am so excited to keep working with her!

I hope you all are well and that you have a great week!

P-day breakfast at Denny's! 

Hna. Whittle