Week 20 - Viva El Pasco

Hello everyone! It was such a wonderful week and I am so excited to tell you all about it! 

We will start off with transfer calls that came Saturday night!

 BIG CHANGES. I am getting doubled out of Duportail (Sister Hansen leaves today *sniffle*) and ELDERS are coming in! I get to be doubled in to Pasco 8th ward with Sister Campleese! She seems so sweet and I am very excited! So lots of changes! The women in the ward were sad to see the sisters leave again but I know its how the Lord needs to further the work here in Richland! I am going to miss it here though. SO many people that I love and cherish are here and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to be here. The love that I have for the Lord and His gospel has only increased as He has allowed me to serve some of his precious people. 

We have a new investigator! His name is Ben and he is incredible. We had the most powerful lesson with him the other day and he is on track to be baptized in the beginning of November! We are so excited for him. I love the light that is able to enter into their lives as they receive the message of Christ's restored gospel. I was reading In Ether 6 and I came across a scripture that perfectly describes what the light of Christ means to us. 

  "And thus the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women and children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness."

He has not left us alone to wander through life. He has given us light, His light to guide us and give us hope. 

We had the coolest experience on Saturday! We were walking home from dinner and we walked right up to a lady crossing the parking lot. She immediately asked us if we were the ones with little black tags. It turns out she had just been having an upsetting conversation with someone over the phone and had been comforted by a member of the church. He looked up our number, gave her the address to the church and left. As soon as she got up to go home we came walking up, not even realizing we had been placed in her path as an answer to prayers. 

The Lord is always there to comfort and guide us with his light. I love this gospel and I LOVE WASHINGTON. Adventure awaits in PASCO! WAHOO!

Love you all! 

Sister Madeline Whetten

Week 19 - Beastie at the baptism!

WOW! It has been quite the week!

 We had our mission tour and had the opportunity to be visited by  Elder Daniel L Johnson and his wife Leanne. It was such a tender mercy because I knew them when I was little and they are close with my parents and grandparents! Of course I was crying! It is so nice to see a familiar face even if it is a blast from the past. Elder Johnson was so inspired as he talked to us about Heavenly Father and our relationship to Him. He really opened our eyes to the importance of teaching that God is our Loving Heavenly Father, He is really there for us, He truly has a body of flesh and bone, we are His children, He knows us and He loves us perfectly. If there is anything He wants you to know above all other things- He wants you to know him. He then challenged us to pray and humbly ask these questions to our Heavenly Father so we can testify with conviction of their truth. WOW. I can testify that Heavenly Father is there for us. He loves us and he knows us. I know I am His daughter and that he cares for ALL of His children. That is why I am here. People need to know this wonderful relationship we have with our Almighty God. It's truly incredible. I challenge you all to do the same thing in your prayers. I promise you will strengthen your testimony and receive an answer :)

Other than being SO spiritually fed at Zone Conference we had some awesome things happen this week. Well, awesome on top of being sick.. ha,ha. Sister Hansen caught the bug after not being sick her ENTIRE mission! Oops! It allowed for some sick comp bonding time while we were quarantined in our apartment. 

We were able to meet a couple new investigators this week! One is a lady named Sarah. We met her and her husband outside late last week and we stopped in again on Wednesday! Her husband is less active and she has been curious about the church for a while. We had a lesson with her and she is just incredible. SO prepared! It is so great to get to know these people and feel such a love for them and a desire for them to come unto Christ and receive the blessing of an Eternal Family.

OK Story time.

Taking Beastie to the baptism

So there was a baptismal service being held on Saturday and we thought it would be a good idea for Rebecca to come and see what her baptism (hopefully in December) is going to be like! Everything is all good to go and then we get a frantic call from her saying she has to watch this puppy and she can't leave him home alone. Naturally, Sister Hansen and I book it over to her house (running in a pencil skirt is awful) and cart her and the dog (named Beastie) to the church just in time for Rebecca to see the service and for us to wait outside with a teething puppy. So Beastie went to a baptism! SO FUNNY 

I love Washington, I love the Lord and I love His Gospel! 

I hope you all have the best week! 

Love, 

Sister Madeline Whetten 

At the doctors...again

Me and Sister Satele (from New Zealand) carving her first pumpkin. She is so hilarious!

Week 18 - "Night Fever Night Fevveeer"

HELLO family and friends!

WOW
It was a busy busy week full of ups and downs as usual! But mostly ups of course.

General Conference was this week! We are so loved by our Heavenly Father that he calls prophets and apostles to lead and guide us today! It's wonderful and this weekend was so inspired and uplifting. Each talk was unique and powerful and directly from our Heavenly Father. I LOVED IT. But, the best part is is that the incredible people that we teach loved it as well.

Oh yeah, I had some fevers this week but no biggie, the Lord blessed me with strength and it made for a fun title. 

We had some great lessons this week that were so powerful! It is such a privilege to see people grow in the gospel. We are all working together and lifting each other up. Obviously I just want to talk about how great conference was and that was probably the most exciting part of the week!

One talk in particular that stood out to me was by Elder Montoya. He stressed 4 main ways that we can be happy and strive to be better followers of Christ 

1. Attend the temple regularly

2. SMILE 

3. Express feelings of compassion to others

4.meditate on the atonement and take the sacrament 

I know that as we help each other out and truly serve out of love for the Savior and others we can experience the full blessings of the atonement and lift one another up along the way.

 The work is steadily growing and it is so exciting to be a part of it! Our investigators are doing great and we feel your love and support here in Washington! Sorry for the short update :)

Have the most wonderful week! 

Love, 

Sister Madeline Whetten

 

Some random lady gave us purple flowers and a hug while we were walking down the street. Such a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father :)

Week 17 - Bawling like a baby in Duportail

Hello!

Well, this week was just fabulous. We were able to meet with some great people and listen to the Women's Broadcast! Overall just an awesome time. Oh, I also gave a talk which scared the living daylights out of me (which you would think wouldn't happen because I bear my whole soul to people I don't even know on the street everyday but whatever) it went alright and I hope I was able to say the things Heavenly Father needed me to say! 

I spoke on the talk given by Mervyn B. Arnold titled "What have you done with my name?" If you haven't had the chance to read it...go read it! It's amazing. So straightforward and uplifting. I was given the privilege to talk about how we can magnify our names as followers of Christ. Stumbling through those 12 minutes I was able to talk about how as we keep those promises we made when we were baptized, rely on the atonement, and genuinely love and serve others, we can worthily bear the name of our loving Savior. 

"Before you act, picture the Savior standing at your side and ask yourself, "would I think it, would I say it, or would I do it knowing He is there?" for surely He is there."

Isn't that powerful? Although the act of speaking in front of a large congregation is definitely not my favorite, I am grateful for the opportunity to study and allow my testimony to grow so I can better serve these AWESOME people here in Washington.

We had some miracles this week! As usual....just kidding! But really, some really great things happened. Here's the low down:

We were able to meet with Rosalinda again and she is so sweet. So full of light and love for the Savior. We hadnt been able to see her all week and then all of a sudden we see her 3 times in 1 day! Crazy!

We have a new investigator this week! His name is Manuel!

He is hilarious and so straight up about everything. the thing that gets him so pumped is the priesthood! he's always saying "this makes so much sense!" and we are all "YEAH it does!!!" Awesome.

We had the privilege of watching the Women's broadcast this week. Of course I bawled like the entire time which is embarrassing yes but it was incredible so, I don't feel too bad about it. 

Learning so much about our divine nature, virtue, being an example, and having faith and hope just makes me cry I guess! It was amazing and I am so excited for conference this weekend! 

I hope your week was wonderful! Love you all!

Love, 

Sister Madeline Whetten

Sister Alley and me on exchanges

Me and Sister Hansen having a good o'le time in our new apartment!

Week 16 - The PUGHUAHUA

Hello! How is everyone doing this week? Things up here in lovely Richland are going great. The work here is BOMB. Which is so fitting because the high school mascot here is the Richland Bomber. ha. ha. ha. :D

Sister Hansen and I had a great week searching for incredible people to share the Gospel with and WE FOUND SOME! Wow. 

Each day this week we were able to find someone new to teach because we were bold and able to talk with everyone we met! What a blessing it was to see the light of Christ in each person we were able to talk to. 

We had a really neat experience with a new family we are teaching this week! We were walking home and we talked to this guy sitting in front of his house. As we talked, we found out that he was not interested in learning more but he knew that his Uncle's family had been meeting with missionaries for a while. When we came back to follow up with that family we were warmly greeted and invited in. It turns out they had been meeting with missionaries for a very long time, read the Book of Mormon, attend church, and already know that this is Christs complete gospel!!!!! It was such a miracle! We are so excited to get to know their family and continuing to teach them. 

ALSO...

We were on our way to try by a potential investigator on Wednesday night and we saw a lady on her porch watching her little girl run around outside. We stopped and said hello and the little girl ran up to us and hugged on to our legs and wouldn't let us go. AH It was the sweetest thing! definitely a tender mercy. The mom thought it was so funny and we ended up having a discussion with her about the Book of Mormon. You could see the light in her eyes as we explained what it was about and how it would bless her family. She got very excited and invited us to come back but before we left she showed us her little rat dog thing. I guess its called a pughuahua which is a pug chihuahua mix. on top of that it was the runt of the litter so it is extra tiny and weird looking. The little daughter named it little rat and after I stopped dying of laughter I took a picture.

This morning I was able to study patience which is the ability to do God's will and accept this timing. Calmly and hopefully. I don't know why I never really realized that before...could've saved me a LOT of trouble haha but hey. That's life. Anyway as I was studying in Mosiah 24 I realized something amazing. If we rely on the Lord in all things he will visit us in our afflictions and if we are patient with them he will make our burdens light and bless us for our faith and hope. We will then be delivered form bondage, whatever that may be. WOW. 

I know that through the grace and mercy of our Savior Jesus Christ we can be healed and rescued. Sharing this with others has changed everything and is teaching me more and more about the attributes of our Savior. Especially patience.

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

Love, 

Sister Madeline Whetten

Pictures:

THE PUGHUAHUA

Me and the wonderful Sister Hansen locked outside of the apartment :)

Week 15 - Street Tacos and an Indian Summer

Hello! 

It has been the longest and fastest week of my life I swear. We had transfers which are always busy but they bring so many blessings! My new companion is Sister Hansen! She is so wise and experienced and she is teaching me SO MUCH about how to be fearless with talking to people and getting as much done as we possibly can in our days. 

Washington is having a hard time making up its mind whether or not it is fall or summer and we had a crazy hot week that left us back out in 98 degrees sweating up a storm. It's ok though because we had SO MANY MIRACLES!!!

We were able to meet some great people this week who are so ready to increase their faith in Jesus Christ. The best part is that we are able to meet them as we are walking to and from our already scheduled appointments! The Lord is placing people in our paths everyday and he needs us to reach out to them! Its amazing what happens when we step outside of our own little worlds for a moment and serve those who have been placed in our paths. It brings me so much joy to see the light that the Gospel brings into the lives of those we contact and teach. Even if they aren't totally ready to hear the message at that time you know that their hearts were touched. 

ALSO REBECCA IS GETTING BAPTIZED IN OCTOBER AND WE ARE SO EXCITED AND SHE IS AMAZING.

OH MAN 

We have this lady in our ward who is the best example of "every member a missionary". She lives in a house full of people. Some are members and some aren't. But every Sunday she is able to come to church she brings EVERYONE SHE KNOWS. EVERYONE!!!! They take up like 2 rows. It is so amazing. When we asked her about it she simply stated that she knows its true and knows its good so why wouldn't she bring those that she loves to something that is good and true. MIND BLOWN. Also she fed us the best tacos I've had in months and I almost cried because they were so good. 

So the takeaways from this week other than 5 pounds of gained taco weight and more crazy sweaty door approaches are:

1. Sister Hansen is a rockstar 

2. Rebecca is a rockstar

3. WE are all missionaries as followers of Christ 

4. There are always people around you who need to see your light and hear about the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ 

I love you all so much and hope you have the greatest week! 

pray for all of us here in l'il ol'e duportail 

Love, 

Sister Madeline Whetten 

Week 14 - Last Man Standing

Hello!!

This week was great! We didn't have anything super exciting happen besides transfer calls. Sister Williams and I will have to say goodbye as she heads off to Kennewick while I stay here in Richland! It's sad but I know we both have some great times ahead of us! we had a great week being able to meet some new people and continuing to teach our investigators. We love them SO MUCH! 

We were able to meet with Aurora and Vanessa this week and spend some time talking about enduring with a hopeful heart and trusting in our Heavenly Father. Vanessa is doing so great and you can see the light in her eyes as a new member of the church. We know Aurora will follow soon as she continues to progress and grow. WE LOVE THEM SO MUCH

This week we learned a lot about patience. Many of our appointments were cancelled and it is disappointing when you aren't able to meet. We were able to stay positive and trust in Heavenly Father and his timing. I learned that patience is directly related to hope and faith. To have patience you need to humble yourself and trust in your Savior. 

All in all it was a great week and I am excited to see what this transfer has in store! I love you all so much and look forward to hearing from all of you :) 

Love, 

Sister Madeline Whetten 

*Also S/O to Kristina and Chaz for getting married I love you both*

*another to Jacob who turned 9 on sunday! WOOO!*

Below is a departing picture of Sister Williams and I 

disclaimer: I am actually on the right and she is on the left OOPS