July 26, 2010

Hey!

Congrats to Jared and Heather on the baby that is so exciting! I so happy for them!

Well, it was a good week! We worked really hard. We were going hard everyday and taking advantage of every second. We had full days. I just love to work! It feels good and brings peace to my heart.

We have a new investigator named M. She is a friend of a recent convert in our ward, Brother S. Brother S is pretty amazing. He is from Jamaica and has the awesome accent and everything. I will say this much when he said the sacrament pray the other week in church, it was awesome! He is as solid as they come. M is a friend of his from work. She came to church last week, we met with her during the week, and she came to church yesterday. She is from Jamaica and is really interested. We had a really good lesson with her on the restoration, marriage, and about missionary work. It sounds like it was all over the place, but it really was perfect. The spirit was there and she was asking questions. It was a sweet experience. On Sunday, I was sitting by her and she was asking a lot of really awesome questions. She wanted to know about redeeming the dead and sacrament. She is really just absorbing everything. It's so awesome. We have appointment with her on Thursday, so we will really be able to see where she at. I can wait for Thursday!

We are working hard and doing our best to find more people to teach! We are basically starting at square one. Dad, I was all game to race to see who can get more baptisms, but I think you’re going to win! You have so much going on its awesome. Your ward is just tearing it up! Us on the other hand don't... we just lost our best ward missionary, she is R.S. president now, and we got a new ward mission leader. He is a young guy like 26. He is trying to figure it all out. He has a lot of nice ideas. We basically just track and go after less actives, so well see. M is our only hope right now. We had an other really promising investigator, but she dropped us.

We did a lot of service this week . We do service for various people 2 to 3 times a week. Most of the time we do yard wok, because you neglect your yard for a month and you have a jungle. Everything grows so fast. One day this week, we drove out to the country picked blueberries. It takes forever to pick blueberries it is so much work, but we got to keep whatever we picked. We also picked some of their green tomatoes and we had fried green tomatoes which are awesome. Work is my outlet and my therapy. I am here to work.

LOVE You!

Sister Whipple

July 19, 2010

Hey family and friends,

I forgot to email this to you last week.

(my letter to president last week below):

It has been a whirlwind of emotions this week. It broke my heart to say goodbye to all the recent converts and investigators. Then, to be transferred some place new and all the stuff that comes with that. It has really been a crazy week. It was kind of exhausting. We have some good things are happening with the work in this area. we are in a desperate state of finding people. We have a boy named B, who is 20 years old, and amazing. Sister Alston and Sister Hernandez tracked into him a week or two ago. He already has a desire to be baptized. He believes everything he is taught. He came to church on Sunday and loved it. The gospel principles teacher is a 19 year old boy who is getting ready to leave on his mission in like two months. He was talking a little about it and B ask if he would be allowed to go on a mission. He is so solid. it's almost unreal. he is the key for his family and he knows that. He really is something else.

much love,
Sister Whipple

President wrote me a letter back. He doesn't write individual email, we usually only get a mass emails. It was really nice, so I thought I would share it with you. It is below:

Thank you for your email. I look to you as a leader among the sisters and I have complete confidence in you. I feel that I can trust you and know that you are a team player. Also, you are so compassionate and kind and CONSISTENT! God bless you for who you have become.

Keep up the good work. Sounds like many good things are happening.

With love and admiration,

Pres Jensen

I thought it was really interesting, because dad told me the same thing as president. I think I got it. The goal for the week show more charity! I will work to be nice and find ways to serve.

Well, on to this week, It was an OK week. We didn't have the car this week, so it was really pretty slow. We are kind of handicapped without a car, so we are still trying to figure out something that works. we relied a lot on members to give us rides which is a good thing that the members are willing. We can't ride our bike much cause we have no where to ride them. We have only two options for roads to go down to get anywhere. We have Old Bain Bridge, which is two lane road, it has no sidewalk or bike lane. It is a canopy rode which means you have trees that arch over the road. Cars just don't see you and you are pretty much going to get hit by a car. The other rode we have is Monroe which is a 4 lane super busy street. It has tiny bike lanes. Also, a biker got killed on that road recently so members won't let us bike on it. Basically, we don't have very many options. Our area is massive, because we cover the outside edge of Tally. Our area is basically impossible to cover on foot or bike. What that means is that our week with the car things are jam packed with visits, appointments, visiting members and less actives. The week we don't have the car is lots of tracking and drags on, because its hard to get anywhere. Also, Sister Hernandez has only been here for one transfer so she still doesn't really know everyone, so it's hard to find a ride. It was a super slow week with out the car. Also, things were just a little out of whack trying to work in a third person.

The lord is definitely blessing me and helping me. I am doing fine. it's just rocky right now and will be for a few weeks. We are struggling with a routine (3 people getting ready takes some work to perfect), the area is unfamiliar, the people are new, and all of that just takes time to figure out. I am doing good, though, and really love Tally.

A really fun lesson that we had this week was with M, who is less active. She is an older lady probably about late fifties early 60's. I loved it. She believes that everyone is out to get her and everyone is raciest against her cause she is black. We aren't just sweetly talking to her, but we weren't contentious either. We were all just going back and forth yelling and speaking with so much boldness. We were just speaking with the power of god! You could feel the sternness, but love. She was going off on the priesthood, everyone hates me, baptism, and a ton of other things. It was such a cool lesson. We had one of our ward missionaries, Mama Hollett (that's what we call her), with us. She is pretty amazing. If every ward had about 50 Mama Holletts we would never have less actives. She was saying all the right things and testifying like crazy. I just wish you could have been there to feel the power in the discussion. We had to speak with that kind of boldness if she was going to feel anything. I felt like after that lesson, she had no other choice, but to come to church. Her heart will take a VERY long time to soften,. It was a really powerful experience for me. I felt the spirit and I was definitely edified.

Missionary work wise it was really good. We got several new investigators, so we'll see how that goes. We have a almost nonexistent teaching pool, so we are working really hard to get things going.

Love YOU!!!

Sister Whipple

Florida Light Show

2 Great Missionaries

We (Garry and I) received the most delightful letter

from a wonderful ward mission leader in Florida.

I love ward Mission Leaders (Garry is the ward mission leader in our ward)

(click on letter to enlarge)

Letter To Parents

July 12, 2010

Hey family

It has been a CRAZY week here in Tally! It was so much harder to say good bye then I thought it would be. It about crushed me to say goodbye to Emma. She should be setting a baptismal date in the next few weeks, so that will be pretty awesome. On Wednesday, I was transferred. I spent literally the whole day doing that. I got picked up in Cotton Dale, drove with President, Elder Dame, and Sister Tuaone to Crestview. Sister Tuaone was being transferred to Destin, so Crestview was her stop. I could have rode with President to Pensacola, but decide to hang out with the other sisters. Sister Fink was being transferred to FSU (Florida Stake University area), so we had to wait for the transfer van to come back around on it's way to Tallahassee. I hung out with Sister Tuaone and Sister Bunsen (who are both in Destin), and Sister Fink. We had a good time hanging.. On our ride back to Tally, we talked with President about all kinds of things. It was fun to get to know him better. He really is super chill and way cool. I really like him and get along with him really good. He's cool. When we got to Tally, I met my new comp., Sister Hernandez she is a lot of fun. She's loud, chill, hard worker, I think we will get along really well. We headed to our duplex which is about 30-45 minutes from the mission home. When we pulled up, I had a flashback to girls camp. it is super wooded and really secluded. It is a total dump. It's worse then the place where I lived in Tucson, it's just super crusty. I could scrub for days and not get any of the crud off. It is good here... We are having an emergency transfer. All of the sisters will now be in trios and they are closing FSU Florida Stake University area. Our We are getting Sister Grammp.

ALSO, I SAW GATORS ON SATURDAY! WOOT! WOOT! more details to come...

Love Ya,

Sister Whipple

New Mission President

Marilyn and Dale Jensen

Dale Homer Jensen, 59, and Marilyn Pihl Jensen, four children, Florida Tallahassee Mission; Deseret-Oasis Ward, Delta Utah West Stake. Brother Jensen is a gospel doctrine teacher and former stake president, bishop and counselor, stake Sunday School president, high councilor and ward Young Men president. Teacher in the Millard County School District and farmer. Born in Delta, Utah, to Homer Dewsnup and Alice Rae Roberts Jensen.

Sister Jensen is a ward Primary teacher and former counselor in stake and ward Young Women presidencies, ward Primary president and counselor, ward Young Women adviser and ward Relief Society teacher. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Robert Gilmer and Emaline Peterson Pihl.

I'm Getting Transferred

WOOT! WOOT!!!!

I am headed to Tallahassee 1st!!!! My comp is Sister Hernandez. I met her the day that I picked Sister Richan up at transfers. We hang out most of the morning. I don't know much about her, but I am so excited to be in Tallahassee! A change will be good. I am so excited!

It was a super crazy week! Everything from tracking multiple times in the rain, meeting the new President and his wife, and getting an investigator who is expressing a desire to be baptized. We tracked in the rain which is the best time to because it show your commitment to work to the Lord, more people are inside, and people see your dedication so they are more willing to listen to you. It was really good. I felt really good, which I hadn't in a while. It was great. I met President and Sister Jensen, totally my kind of people. I already love them. President is cool and a lot of fun! Sister Jensen, totally love her. She has a fun personality and was super cute. She gave us the great new that we no longer have to wear nylons! Woot! Woot!! I felt naked without them though so it's kind of a weird adjustment. It also is such a relief cause it is HOT here! Also, the best news was we no long have to have mid calf or longer skirts. The rule now is that our skirts just have to cover our knees when we sit.

One funny story that happened when I met President and Sister Jensen was they said when they received their call that they goggled the mission. Well, guess what the first think that popped up was...MY BLOG!!! They had looked at some of the pictures. I just hope they didn't read too much. It was pretty funny I didn't even think about something like that. I got a kick out of it.

We had really powerful lessons with Brother Daryl and Emma this week. Brother Daryl was the best we have ever had. Emma asked "what's the procedure for baptism?" It was pretty awesome. She isn't quite ready to set a date, but I think she will be baptized before the end of the month. It was way cool. She is getting it.

LOVE you!!!

Next time you here from me I'll be in Tallahassee! WOOT! WOOT!!! Back in the city where I belong!

LOVE YOU!!! Thanks for the letters everyone. I really needed them last week!

Love Sister Whipple