I've passed my halfway mark!

Mika tempts me!

June 2, 2014 2:25 PM

Hola familia! 

I'm going to explain this heading.. we were doing our shopping in supermaxi today and guess who comes on the radio?? MIKA!!!!! oh my word... i was dying... i can almost resist most music but when mika comes on i had to sing along... i just had too!!!!! Don't worry I'm going to repent tonight :)

Ok so we had two baptisms this week. two of the kids of Patricia (she was baptized last week) Maya and Marco. I don't know why baptismal services are always so stressful, but they are! We finally for once show up on time and guess what?? No one is there! So we are calling people asking why no one is there and apparently bishop told everyone it was at 8:30! ah! But it all ended up ok and a few people showed up! It was so cute, right before the actual baptism Maya was so excited and nervous that she shed a few tears! That's a pretty good sign that your investigator understands how awesome baptism is and what a great gift it is!

OK other miracle time. Sunday morning we went to check on all the people for church and marco and maya weren't in their house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh my gosh we tried to stay calm hoping that they would be back before church started so we went to look for more people and we were passing my some menos activos and none other then marco is there. He tells us that he can't go to church today because he's going to help his boss in another town!!! ah!!! so we went to talk to his boss and told him how important it was that Marco go to church because he was getting confirmed and his boss was all, oh ok! I'll drop him by his house so he can go to church! ah! 

ok now funny story time. Last night we were doing companion prayer and sometimes its a little hard to hear because your faces are in the pillows and the fans are going.  WEll, my comp was saying the prayer and she stopped talking.. i thought "o shoot! she finished and i didn't hear it" so i say amen and then shes all ... "en el nombre de jesucristo.. amen?" Oops,  i totally cut off her inspiration! we are going to start doing comp prayer side by side now :) haha 

Well that's all folks! i love the mission, i love my life, i cant believe I'm more then halfway done! yikas!!! 

i love you all! have a great week! 

Hermana Whitmore 

What a week!

June 9, 2014 2:23 PM

Well this week started out interesting, because i thought that i had escaped the cambios! (those usually happen on Monday night) BUT Tuesday night, elder Thomson calls me and tells me i need to be at the bus station at 6 in the morning.. i literally cried! Machala was sooo awesome and David (the miracle child) was finally going to be baptized this week with his sister! His mom was finally starting to soften up and everything was going awesome. Well because I'm an obedient child, i packed my bags and was at the station.. guess where they sent me? That's right, Guayaquil. I'm in Centenario... again! Yikas.. i got to the sector and all these memories started flashing back and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing... I've tried to leave that Hna. Whitmore in the past. So this morning i did a super study on how not to be the same missionary as before so that i could enjoy this sector to the fullest. It was awesome... All about loving the people and changing and all that good stuff. Anywho... I'm in a trio now and that's definitely interesting.. I've got number 5  peruana(companion from Peru) and my first Ecuadorian... But they are both awesome. I feel really tall.... We talk late into the night but we are being obedient because we have the lights off! haha 

We had a baptism this week... i don't really know Giovanny,  so i can't really say anything... 

Also we got to listen to 2 general authorities this week. Elder Clayton and Elder Waddell... I learned sooo much from them both! Its not really anything i can explain or i would try :)

The greatest part of the week was that we put fechas with a couple that's been working toward baptism for 6  years! Their son left for a mission about 3 months ago and i think that's what did the trick. They went to the special conference with elder Clayton and talked with Presidente Torres and It was as easy as that! They are getting baptized next week! Woohoo! I love it when miracles like that happen and i can actually see them :) and how the gospel changes lives and how now they can work toward becoming an eternañ family! 

Well that's all i got for you folks :) i love you all! Have a great week! 

Hermana Whitmore

1- Maya and Marco (children de patricia)

2-Giovanny

Most of the month of May 2014

No letter on May 12th, just a phone call home on Mother's Day!!

Hermanas in their new dresses! Miracle time!

May 19, 2014 2:28 PM

Dearest familia,

Not much happened this week BUT I have been watching the most amazing miracle happen. One of our investigators, started out as we only invited him to church and he came. So we went and put a baptismal date and THEN found out that he has been doing drugs 3-4 times a day for 4 years! We taught him the word of wisdom gave him a book of mormon and really he has done the rest. He stopped the drugs cold turkey and hasn't had any problems. He told us that every time he feels tempted he just reads the BOM or says a prayer. He has read all of 1 and 2 Nephi in a week! He also taught himself to use the footnotes and the whole plan of salvation. He is sooo amazing. We were sitting outside talking to his neighbor and he walked past with all of his dvds because he didn't want the temptation! AH! seriously, there are no words for how amazing it is to see someone change so completely with the help of the gospel! 

ok, so this neighbor of David is Patricia and she is going to get baptized this week! POR FIN we have baptisms! Her kids are getting baptized in two weeks! AH mi primer familia :) 

And the other fantastic thing that happened this week was that we had lasagna!!!!! bah! it was awesome, minus the pile of rice that came with it... seriously whats with the rice people? i do not need more carbs! haha

Welp, thats all i got for you this week folks!

Love you all!

Hermana Whitmore

Picture 1:This is what i do when I'm waiting for my companion on pday! 

Pic 2: Writing (typing)  letters on pday!

Another week in the REAL paradise :)

May 26, 2014 1:32 PM

Hola familia,

I love hearing the different sides of your cruise stories and the reaction of when you got home! haha Awesome! I hope you enjoyed yourselves because i sure did this week! We´ve been working and working and working and finally it all paid off! We finally got to see a baptism here in the Aurora. Her name is Patricia, and she a single mom with 7 kids! Yikas. 2 of them will be baptized next week. She is so great and has a good little testimony started of how the gospel can help the family. We´ve been working so hard this week to get our program set. We are working with a lot of people and families! Its so awesome to work with the members and get their friends to come to church. Its so much more meaningful to them both! 

Most of the week was normal, just the regular working and working and working. I love learning from my companion! She is a convert of 3 years and has soooo much knowledge of the scriptures. I hope i can really use this time wisely to learn as much as i can! 

I have to apologize... i don't have any really cool stories to tell you... I did learn that i can follow the spirit this week. We were in a lesson with 3 supposed menos activos, which usually means we talk about the sacrament. But i felt like we needed to cover all of lesson 3, sooo then we found out that 2 of them have never actually been baptized and we put 2 new fechas! Woo hoo espiritu santo. So that's my awesome missionary experience this week! 

Love you all! hope you have

a great week :)

Hermana Whitmore

picture 1: p-day papas! 

Picture 2: Patricia and most of the herd!

Yay fiebre!

Yay fiebre! [yay fever] Quierido Familia,  Todo esta bien en la tierra de Machala.[all is well in the land of machala] We're all on our toes because we are expecting full cambios[changes/transfers] tonight! But i want to thank you all for remembering my birthday and tambien[also] i want to publicly wish happy birthday to my daddy!!!!! Entonces! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!! and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM!!!!!!!! It's quite convenient for me that those days ended up on the same day :) haha  Well this week has been fun. Normal things going on. I got really sick.. like 101 degree temperature. But no worries all is well now! Our menos activos[less actives] definitely still need your prayers and our investigators really really need your prayers. Seriously, we had this flip flop situation with one of our investigators. He was all super excited one day and then the next day he was all i don't want to be baptized... i know its all true but I'm gonna stay catholic.... what???????? seriously. And we finally got one of our menos activos to come to church and it was literally, physically hard for her to walk into the building. Lots of prayers for Elizabeth please :) But really that was all that's been happening. Just work work work!  I'm super excited for SUNDAY!!!! yoohoo!  Love you all! Hermana Whitmore Pic 1- washing sheets in the sink is not fun.... but i will be a fantastic mother if our washing machine breaks!  Pic 2- This is what fever looks like in 90ish degree weather! Pic 3- Breakfast! yum,yum!

May 5, 2014 2:08 PM

April 14, 21, 28 of 2014

i love being sickly...

April 14, 2014 2:38 PM

Dearest Familia!

Como estan? This week has just been a treat. I started out great and then about an hour after i sent off the letter last... well that's when the fun began. My kidneys started hurting and then it just went downhill from there. We had to stay in the house Wednesday and Thursday because even though i was feelin pretty good, presidente was worried i had an infectious disease! No se preocupe[worry]- i don't!  well,  just to make sure these things don't come back, I'm taking multiple pills, multiple times a day. woohoo! gotta love south america!

Anywho, real missionary things that happened this week. My testimony of the Book of Mormon grew! Again! It was awesome, we were having a lesson with this one fecha and his cousin and his friend. and this friend is a "bad kid" so to say, does the drugs alcohol, tattoos, all that stuffs and was only talking to us to "give us his opinion" on everything- but we were reading in 2 nefi 31 and after he was all: i wasn't interested before but now i want to listen and i´ll read this other chapter tonight! How cool is that? The book of Mormon can change someone like (*snap) that!

Also, to answer moms questions, Machala is a decently sized city (like... no sé... sandy? but ecuador style!) There is a city center for shopping and its right on the ocean, but i never see it because its in the other zone! we eat a lot of fish and shrimp... and yeah. That's machala! we have this big ol´ huge sector that covers all the outskirts of the town on the way to santa rosa.  Its a little frustrating right now because we don't have people and its really hard to find them, but we wont lose faith or animos![fortitude]

I love being a missionary- even when i'm sick! my testimony grows everyday and i learn a little bit more about Christ too! i love it!

Hermana Whitmore

April 21, 2014

full poder!  [full power]

April 28, 2014 2:31 PM

Alright family!

This week was full of spiritually uplifting experiences! We had an Area Seventy come and we had capacitacion[training] with him for 6 hours! it was AWESOME! He got us all excited to work with the members and he talked all about this new era of missionary work! It was so enlightening and ... ah just awesome! I just know that it changed the way I'm going to do everything in my mission. I obviously have a gift with menos activos[less active] because that's literally all we've been able to find this week. Our program looks super sad but really we are just reactivating tons of people! In sacrament meeting we had 4 investigators and 5 menos activos! woo! But that was another miracle by itself because we were only planning on two menos activos and all of our investigators flaked!

So we got to church all depressed-like and one of the conversos[converts] of H. Brule had 3 non member family members and some menos activos were there just because they felt the need to come back to church after five years and he brought his brother who also isn't a member soooo! We put fechas with 2 of them and have plans for the other ones for this week! Our faith finally paid off! Woo! Happy day :)

Well, really, i think that's all. Sorry its kinda a lame letter but i just can't think of anything else that was really that cool.

This morning i studied some pretty cool stuff about the prodigal son. I just love that story because its like what we are doing right now! We are finding all of the lost "sons" and bringing them back so that our heavenly father can rejoice for their return!

I love you all, I love being a missionary, I love ecuador!

Hermana Whitmore

PS if you can pray for my investigators: dana y jhonny pogo. and these menos activos: Shirley Barreto, and Luis Pesantes and family, Victoria, and Christian. I would greatly appreciate it!

Motherhood and Tsunami´s

April 7, 2014 3:35 PM

 Hola Querido Familia Mio,

Well, this week has definitely been interesting. Monday, we got the call for cambios. SOOO I was up packing until the wee hours of the morning, and then had to get up early to head out to my new sector in MACHALA! So I get to Machala and meet my new compy, she's a gringita from Colorado, Hermana Brule, and she's got 7 weeks in the mish! Guess what that means: I'm a MOM! ha-ha Step-mom really, but it's almost the same thing. Anywho, so we go out to work and we don't really have a program for various reasons so we were doing a lot of member and conversos visits. In the last visit,  we see the report of the Tsunami, and how the whole coast of South America needs to be on alert. SOO we head back to the apartment and get a call from the elders:"you´re all going to Santa Rosa". I start freakin out because I'm so excited to go back to my home land, and everybody else starts freakin out because of the tsunami. obviously, I've got my priorities straight. So yeah, we head to Santa Rosita and with my really good luck we stayed in my old house. However there were definitely 10 of us sleeping on 4 mattresses.... so yeah that was fun.

Not to worry, nothing happened in Machala and we came back the next morning safe and sound. Then the rest of the week was pretty normal. We are still looking for people to teach, and we just seem to be in a dry spell, but I'm not giving up hope!! If there is a will there is a way right? RIGHT? 

So yeah, it's been fun to be in a new area, but it definitely was sad to leave everyone in Santa Rosa. I learned so much there and I feel like it's my home away from home, but I know that I will be able to make whatever area I'm in feel the same way. 

OK: conference, I really didn't get to watch it because we were stressing about investigators and all that fun stuff, plus it was in Spanish and when I'm stressin´ my Spanish brain doesn't work as well. So when the Liahona comes out with all the talks, I'll let you know what I liked! ha-ha

Well that's all my fun news! can't wait until next week :)

Hermana Whitmore

TJ´s and Baptisms

March 31, 2014 

Hola Quierido Familia Mio,

This week was a little difficult in the work, which is a little disappointing with conference right around the corner. BUT it's all good, we are keeping our spirits up here in little ol´ Santa Rosita. We had the baptism of Brigette! Por FIN![finally] she is the cutest girl, 12 years old. And she is super pilas, and gets along super well with all the girls in the rama[branch]. I think that she is going to be just fine when we have cambios[transfers] and she has to survive just on the members. 

This week we got a reference from the other zone and this lady is sooo ready. She put her own baptismal date. How awesome is that? She was a TJ (Testigo de Jeovah)[Jehovah's Witness] and came to the church to see if we really worshiped  Joseph Smith,found out we didn't and that we only talk about Christ and all this good and now she's  soo ready to get baptized!!! Her baptism is planned for right after the Sunday conference. YEEHOO! 

It's amazing the difference between teaching people that are ready and truly prepared to learn the gospel and teaching people that need a little convincing. The people I've taught are about half and half. The ones that are prepared, definitely had the spirit teaching them everything. We just had to say the words out loud so that they could understand what the spirit was whispering. It's sooo cool!!! Los demas[the other] are fun to teach too because we get to use the scriptures and guide them to the right pathway to return back to our heavenly father. 

I had the greatest blessing this week to watch 3 of my converts help with the sacrament this week!! AHHH! 2 of them blessed it and the other helped pass it out. OH my word. I almost started crying- it was soo tender. I love being able to see the fruits of this work unfolding right before my eyes! Blessings Blessings Blessings! 

Well that's all I got for you this week folks! Les Quiero MUCHISISISISIMO! 

Tengan una buena semana![Have a good week]

I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES!

March 24, 2014

Dearest Familia  mio!

My week wasn't that exciting but not every moment of the mission has to be exciting right?  So this week we didn't have any baptisms BUT the siblings of one of my conversos got baptized so we got to watch that! It's amazing how the gospel changes people! This family was sooo shy before and now they are all happy and excited about life and say hi to people in the ward and TALK! its soo awesome to see people change like that. 

This week we had 10 people in church and we only brought 1. the other nine came on their own! how awesome is that. 6 of the 9 are a family... ish, mom, her dad, kids and cousins but they are soo awesome and I'm soo excited to see them get baptized como una familia! 

Cambios were a little crazy this week because one of the ZL´s had cambios Monday but our new ZL was coming from the Galapagos SO he didn't get here until Saturday! (that's how cambios work when part of the mission is in the middle of the ocean). It didn't effect us (the hermanas) that much, it was just strange to have one ZL. 

Yesterday I sang in church... I feel like it's my calling to sing at all the baptisms and in church.. oh well! haha but we sang "as sisters in Zion" and changed the words to be for everyone. pretty cool! 

So I've hit the point where I can read the scriptures in Spanish and I understand all of it! and I love it! and I learn soo much! and I don't understand how I didn't feel this way before about the scriptures! They are sooo cool and all the stories literally can help everyone in one way or another! I sooo much took for granted the book of Mormon before and now I just want to read it all the time! I can't wait to get home and show you guys my scriptures because they are sooooo cool! haha 

Just know: I know that the BOM is another testament of Jesus Christ. Every word in that book was inspired of God. Through the book of Mormon we can find every answer we ever needed. all the inspiration that we ever needed. The Book of Mormon changes lives and its changed mine over and over and over again. I'm soo grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary and serving the Lord and the people here in Ecuador everyday! 

I love you all! Tenga una buena semana!

Hermanita Whitmore

Vanessa and Bryon! Yajahiras (my converso) siblings! 

Hermana Amanda y Hermana Matamores- Relief society presidente and one of my mamitas!

Elder Dickerson is working in the same sector as me!!!