Week 56 - Blessings and a Baptism

Hello! busy, crazy, exciting week! I'm going to try and sum it up. So we were surprised on Wednesday morning with a call for the other sisters we live with that they were getting emergency transferred in a few hours! It was crazy. We had to get them ready to go and send them off. I was sad to see them go, but I know it will all be for the best and we will be reunited again some day! We had two other sisters move in with us Hermanas Vasquez and Esteves. We already love them and we are excited to endure a hot fun summer together. 

Its been a great week full of awesome lessons and sweet experiences. I have so much gratitude in me heart towards Heavenly Father for helping me love, grow, and change out here. I'm still me in all my weird ways but at the same time, I can see how the Lord has truly helped me to become more like Him with the smallest of changes. Each day you wake up and choose to be happy and rely on the Lord. Mistakes are inevitable so there's no need to constantly stress about them. As we put our full trust in the Lord and the promises He has made us, He heals, repairs and strengthens us in every way. 

Linda made it to church this Sunday! Finally! we had a full blown celebration. We come into the chapel and there she is sitting there! Hair curled and everything. I love her so much and it has been such a blessing to be with her. 

There's a family that in our ward that we have grown very close to. Their daughter Mikiya got baptized on Sunday and we had the privilege of going. The spirit was so strong as her dad (a convert of a few years) was able to baptize his daughter and allow her to receive that special gift of the Holy Ghost. I know that because of the Restored gospel of Jesus Christ, we can make sacred promises with our Heavenly Father and he makes even bigger promises to us in return. We can be with our families and the ones we love for eternity. That is what drives me to try my best to be a disciple of Christ every day, so others can know of this eternal blessing.

I hope you all have the best week! I love you! 

Love, 
Sister Madeline Whetten 

Week 55 - Temple and Chicken Wings

Hello!! This week was a wild one. We had our last zone conference with President and Sister Ware on Friday. It has been such a pleasure to serve with them. I am so grateful for their love and influence in my life. I know that the Lord sent me here to learn from them and its been a great year. It was pretty sad though!! Your mission definitely becomes a part of your life and im sure its tough to leave. Sister Ware kept saying it was bittersweet and I think that says it. 

ANYWAY! 

We had a great week!!! We have been searching for some new people to teach and the Lord blessed us with Leti, Rossi, and Zach. It is so amazing to be able to be an tool in the Lord's hands in finding and teaching his children. Its remarkable how you can be in a small town that has been visited by missionaries for so many years and still find people that have never had any contact with the gospel. Testifying of a Savior who heals and guides is the most uplifting, happy work. It doesnt even feel like work I swear. 

ALSO! Weve been meeting with the corpus family for a while now and on Friday they invited us over for some hot wings and a lesson. The most perfect combo if you ask me. So while we are sitting there eating this amazing food Brother Corpus starts telling us about these amazing experiences hes had. We have been working with them on attending the temple and as we are eating he tells us that he finally feels like he is ready to work with the Bishop on going to the temple. We were literally crying and stuffing our faces at the same time. It was incredible to see the joy on his face when he told us that. We know their family will be so blessed as they are sealed and make more promises with the Lord. 

We were able to attend the temple this morning and my testimony of eternal families and the importance of temple work was reaffirmed. I know that this is the Lord's true church and it brings be joy to share it with others! I hope you all have a great week!

Love, 
Sister Madeline Whetten

Week 54 - Giant Dandelions

Hello! 

It was another great week here in hot hermiston. We had some great lessons and were able to talk to a ton of new people. The Lord truly directs us to those who are ready and prepared to hear and accept his gospel. 

We met the sweetest girl named Hailey this week and she is so excited to get baptized. On Sunday we didn't even see her walk in but there she was! It turns out her and the guy that was bringing her got into a car accident on the way to church but THEY STILL CAME. Holy cow. 

I dont have much time this week cause its SISTER GOMEZ's BIRTHDAY! woo!!! 

But I love you all and hope you have the best week! 

Love,

Sister Whetten

They have giant dandelions here! Its insane

Happy Birthday Sister Gomez!

Week 53 - Charlotte's Web .... above MY BED!

Hi! This week was HOT. I mean HOT. It got to 109 and we felt like we were melting. We probably looked like it too. Its that time of year again and it hit hard. We are so grateful for kind people who give us water and aren't always commenting on how hot at sweaty we look. 

The biggest miracle happened this week! Steve and Annette have decided to be baptized on June 25! WOOHOO. We are SO EXCITED FOR THEM. The spirit is so strong every time we get to talk with them and we have really loved getting to know and serve their family. We had a lot of cancellations this week but we were able to see all of our friends we are working with and make sure they were doing ok. I am always trying to work on having complete trust on our Heavenly Father's timing. We just have to take a step back and remember that as we put all of our faith and trust in the Lord, everything will work out the way that it is meant to. That has been one of the greatest things I have been able to learn this past year. 

I got to go on exchanges with Sister Bastian this week and we had an amazing experience with following the spirit. We had been visiting a ton of people but no one was home so we were about to drive into the other city we work in. I was driving and all of a sudden I had this feeling I needed to turn now and we needed to go and try to see this lady that we met the other day. So we made a crazy turn and pulled up to this house. While we were getting out of the car we saw a few people talking on the other side of the street so we went to go and talk to them. We ended up meeting Traci who is an inactive member. She invited us inside and we had this powerful lesson about the atonement. After we left we expressed how grateful we both were that we listened even though it didn't seem like the best thing to do at the time. But jokes on us! The Lord always knows best. 

Last night we had a scary experience. Sister Gomez and I heard a noise that didnt sound right outside and we had a strong feeling that we needed to go out and help. We got out to our parking lot and there was a Guatemalan lady and her daughter that had been attacked. The police asked for a translator and Sister Gomez was able to help calm the lady down and assist the EMT and the Police officers. It ended up turning into a crazy arrest but everyone was safe. Long story short Sister Gomez was able to really be an answer to prayer in an extreme time of need. 

IT WAS CRAZY. ALSO. We go back into our room and above my bed are HUNDREDS OF BABY SPIDERS THAT HAVE JUST HATCHED AND ARE CRAWLING ALL OVER THE CEILING AND FALLING ON OUR BEDS. Charlotte decided to make her nest in our room. So there we are screaming and spraying windex all over our room trying to kill these spiders. It was so funny. 

Needless to say we had an eventful week that was amazing and insane at the same time. I love you all and I hope you have the best week! 

Love, 

Sister Madeline Whetten

I hit my hear mark and celebrated with a maple bacon doughnut! Whoop