Russia

my final companion (sorry mom) is a Ukrainian he is from kyiv and as for myself i dont have much to say other than see yall in 3 days  i am excited. as for this week it has been packing and preparing to leave... so yea that is about it love you all.

Final Runs

man it is getting close i don't have long to email so basic rundown things are interesting we are classified as "ministering elders" presidents words not mine and things are lit more details next week as i got to go love you all in your individual ways you especially James cause i know you like to question but love mom the most!!!

hey y'all

sorry this is coming late transfers happened on Monday so today is emailing. based on that you could probably guess i was transferred i am now back in Durban here to Finish my mission i am in an area called Queensburgh an area that has been closed for 4-5 years and the attendance is 30 with 100+ members registered so that is my assignment i am working with members in re activation. should be fun my new comps are as follows:

Elder Huff: my group from Pocatello Idaho skier in my group leaving in 2 weeks

Elder Lopez-Peliaz my group from Oregon idk exactly leaving with me 3-4 weeks

Elder Tracy: not from my group from Utah leaving in over a year

so this should be interesting here we are last stretch gotta pound it hard i feel bad for the younger guy he is going to "kill" all three of us and then inherit a white washed area (freshly opened). should be fun.

well i don't know what else to say so i will say stay safe and remember who you are!!!

hi guys

well turns out that i aint going to die in stanger i am getting transfered... and before anyone gets worked up that is mission language   -birthed=coming to the mission   death=going home-  but yea i am going back to bloemfontein... but now exactly i am going to bloemanda outside of bloemfontein but yea. it is sad because we finally scheduled a 30 min trip over to the outskirts of our area to go and see a person who was reffered to us by someone in johannesburg and he was powerfull he already knew most of the stuff because they had given him the books and he read them all but yea so he is now on a date for the end of april but sad i wont be here. and here is a little shoutout to sister williams. anyway confrence was great and hopefully all yall have a good easter love you all stay well.

walking and walking

so this week was interesting a lot of walking we walked to a members house that we normally take a taxi because we where working with a pair of member boys that wanted to walk so we trackted on the way and yea we walked and walked then we walked back down then the next day we walked with the same member boys out to the members house from last week and she wasnt there so we walked back then we walked out again the next day because she was there so we cleaned some  bricks old style hammer and chisel i feel for the people that hand carved the bricks that whent into the salt lake temple cause we got through 15 bricks in like 3 or 4 hours and yes they where small bricks like the standard brick size from back home then we walked back home and yea it was hard but hey i lost weight so +++++ it made me feel good i was tired though we got home and i passed out  yep that was my week in a nutshell love you all stay safe and remember God is good all the time, and all the time God is good... peace out

hey

well this week kinda whent by way to fast... it started with a surprise trip to durban to attend their zone confrence instead of ours. so that was our tuesday kinda washed away then on Wednesday we whent to help a lady with her yard you know service type stuff picking grass leaving weeds you know not all that complicated then i saw in the corner of the yard a wall that was down and asked about it she told me that there was a tree next to the wall that cracked it so they took it down before it could fall on anybody... i said well what do plan to do she said that they will rebuild it so i whent out to take a look and most of the bricks looked salvagable so that was the rest of the day picking up bricks and stacking them for another time when we will go back with a hammer and chisel to chip off the moarter so they can re use the bricks. thursday was simple we trackted most of the day. then friday was exciting we where walking up to see a member who we where supposed to see on tuesday but rescheduled to friday and as we where walking up her hill i saw a guy walking with a tv on his head. now this wasnt a small tv it was a large flatscreen and something didnt seem right then i heard an alarm and the guy took off running about 2 min later the security came and we told him which way the guy whent and he loaded his gun and took off after him it was intense soo cool... sat was a normal day sadly i was hoping for something cool and sunday was interesting we had 3 people show up that i didnt know i thought that they where investigators but it turned out that they where just memebers from around that had just gone less active in the branch so that was exciting well till next week..........

this is weird

things have been weird this week i dont know how to put it but it was just strange. but my week other than that was great i saw that investigator that i ran into a coupple of weeks ago the one that moved back here and we where able to teach him he is incredible and loves the idea of missionary work and asked us how it worked and he said that some day he hopes to have the same opportunity best of luck to him. well not too much happened this week. nothing exciting like getting handed lunch for free or anything so yea not too much happened but we will see how the week goes love you all in your own special ways stay safe and stay out of trouble...

Hey yalll

i ran into some people tis week that asked me just to speak for them cause they wanted to hear my accent and apparently they thought that my accent sounded texan i thought they where crazy. my comp thinks that they are right so i dont know apparently wyoming shares a similar accent to texas that isnt as harsh maby i dont know. anyway we had a powerfull moment this week. we where sitting in our boarding eating lunch after church and we got a text from a guy that neither of us knew saying he wanted to hear the good word... so we told him to meet us at the chapel so we did and apparently he was a long lost investigator. one that hadent been taught since last year and still mannaged to remember our number it was cool verry spiritual lesson and cool moment well till next week... Whiting out.

hey hey hey

so this has been a crazy week but yea things have kind of settled down thankfully. this week me and my companion where talking to members that way we can find some new people to teach because the investigators that we had all moved or are in areas now declared as unsafe thankfully we got that figured out some of them said that we would be able to teach them at the chapel so yea. there is always a way. my thought that i shared this week is a lesson where i tear up a pece of paper in a certian way to reviel a cross as well as the peaces to show the death of the savior and by taking them i can spell love benieth the cross the ultimate reason that he paid the price for us.. so remember who you all are... love you all

https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/missionaries-family-communication

so sorry about last week

last week we had some issues with power last week. and this week we had the same problems. that is why this is coming out so late. but yea apologies and as for this week we had zone confrence and we learned one importiant thing and that was what your motivations are is very importiant.

there are 3 motives in this world that sum them all up

1. fear, doing what you need to do because of the fact that you fear what will happen otherwise

2. duty, doing what you are supposed to do because it is your responsibility. because it is something that gives you a pourpose and this ties to number 

3. love, in my opinion the most powerfull of all the motives due to the fact of if you love doing something or you are doing something out of love there is nothing that can stop you there is nothing that can stand in your way.

taking that to a spiritual side i would say is how are we in following God and Christ? are we doing it because we fear what will happen if we dont just because we know it is what we are supposed to do or because we love doing it keep that in mind this week as you evaluate the decisions that you make i tried this and my week changed i felt more involved in what i was doing and i know that you can feel the same so that is my challange figure out what motivates you and try to make it your love... love you all in so many different ways varying on who you are because some of you dont need the same love my mother does...

saligahle. and or hambagahle

Elder Whiting,

um hi i guess

this was the most common phrase i heard this week because that is exactly what i did we where tracting going door to door trying to find new people to teach and once again the weatherman lied but this time i was prepared for it so i wasnt burnt too bad. but yea the new news is i have a new companion his name is elder King he is from australia and comes from a big family like me he is the second youngest though of 7 so he has the other end of the sibling spectrum but yea things are good and yes mom he is expecting your questionaire but yea. funny moment. my comp has had a bad toe and it is soo funny because he is nursing it like a baby but as soon as he turns his head away from it for 2 seconds it bumps into something else so yea i guess it fits the description of any baby firstly there is nothing faster than a baby once it has been asked what is in its mouth. learned that one out here when a ma chased her baby for like 4 or 5 min before it came running over to me and just spat the toy into my lap. and two as soon as you look away they are plotting some way to get into trouble my mother can probably testify that one after raising me. but yea on a spiritual note i had an incredible experience this week we walked into pick and pay (the local store) and while we where in there we where approached  by not one not 2 not even 3 but 5 people that had moved into the area and didnt know where the church was and because of that whent less active. as our mission president says "nothing happens by accident" i belive that now anyway that is it for this week i will see what i can do picture wise but until then Saligahle.

Elder Whiting,

buzzzzzzz

so only one really interesting thing happened this week and that was i got chased around the boarding by a wasp but then i reached in to my inner ninja grabbed a pencil from my desk and took one swing landed full contact and the wasp was sent careening twards the wall with a kinda sickening crunch fell to the floor dead i felt like a boss!!! i am untouchable. the other thing that happened was there was a guy that came up to me i dint recognise him but he said that he recognised me then he told me a story that brought it back... he told me about how when i was in umlazi i was the guy that was willing to help him i was walking along after buying dinner some fries and bread and this guy was sitting at the corner of the mall. i felt bad for him and gave him the fries and a copy of the book of mormon on account that he read it... he said that he had. and he said that he belived that that was the reason that he was doing well he had got a job an appartment and his life turned around. i felt good that day planting seeds really does help even if it seems helpless...

1. photo opportunity with some sugar cane

2. i got boarding skills (aka me boarding to an appointment with a member to do some service)

3. the number one gardening and roof painting service

Elder Whiting,

the weatherman tells lies!

so i whent on exchanges with the elders in my district. for those of you who dont know there are 4 of us in my district and i need to go on an exchange with each  companionship to evaluate how things are going and to see how i can help. anyway i checked the weather the day before i left and it said that it would be low to mid 20's for those using Fahrenheit that is about 68 to 75 so not too hot.. and it was supposed to be clowdy so i left the sunscrean in my boarding and traveled to the other companionship... well that was the first mistake it turned out to be 38 ish degrees which is about 100 degrees Fahrenheit and there wasnt a cloud in the sky🌞 and i got cooked pretty bad it hurt😭 and for the next 3 days i didnt sleep all that well. i am recovered enough now and yea things arent too bad... i have enjoyed being out here this week we found 2 of my investigators that i lost contact with when i was treansfered out of here the first time... that was about 15 months ago for those keeping track. but the people said that they had prayed that they would still find the truth. i didnt see either of them until now because they where with their families for the holidays but this last sunday they came back and when they came to church i was startled to find that they had been baptized and i didnt even know. so remember even if it seems that you dont make a difference in someones life one little ripple is all it takes even if that ripple is a card miraculusly thrown through an open window from 6 meters away

1.my amazing burn... fair warning shirtless elder whiting

2. me and my comp garden work day

3. my favorite go to on the go lunch schwarma!!!! only 35 rand for 2 that is less than 3 bucks

Elder Whiting,

What is up is the sky

so things have been kinda slowing down for me i wish they hadent it made the new year kinda boring made christmass seem like a drag... but that is whatever cause that isnt my pourpose for being out here... i am here for the crocodiles!!! no just kidding but yea this week i was able to go to a place called crocodile creek and there i was able to hatch a baby crocodile... sorry no photos of that... but i do have a picture of me wearing a crocodile as a hat the guy snuck up behind me while i was pulling the baby out of the egg and placed another small crocodile on my head it grabbed my head with its legs at which point the guy told me to reach back and grab the tail and then the croc whent into sky diving mode. legs out head up kinda thing. that was fun.

Elder Whiting,