New Area

After a good 5 months in Gresham, Elder Whitby has been transfered for the first time. He is now serving in the coastal town of Astoria with Elder Gray. Elder Gray has only been out about 6 weeks longer than Christian. They live with another member family and their dog, Tara. "She's a really cute dog and it's nice to have someone behind at least one of the doors we go through each day who is happy to see you."

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Each week the family gets a mass emailed Weekly Update from Elder Whitby. It usually comes around noon every Thursday, and I'm sure I'm not speaking for only myself when I say how excited I always am to hear from him.

This past week Christian and his companion spent a lot of time at meetings, which comes with every set of transfers. The two of them were feeling pretty unsuccessful in their work, so they decided to fast together and spend a day tracting.

By the end of the day, after about five hours, we had (finally!) picked up two new investigators, both of whom seem pretty solid—which, in missionary terminology, means there’s a pretty good chance they’ll actually show up to their first appointments. But the best part was that the last door we knocked that day was that of the Himes family, who are an older couple in our ward. It turns out Brother Himes was at that moment looking through the Stake Directory for our phone number to call us, and had to set it down to answer the door and see us standing there. I guess they have a couple granddaughters who have had a pretty rough life, but are now interested in going to church and likely taking the missionary lessons. Just one of those pretty neat spiritual missionary experiences, I guess. And, to top it off (and I’m not actually sure which I’m more excited about), another member family we tracted into sent us off again with a big container of almond rocca, and another member who drove by us stopped and gave us some fancy artisan chocolate she had (“So I don’t eat it myself,” she explained). So, we definitely got both spiritual and temporal blessings for our hard work, which I’d have to say is always appreciated.

Elder Whitby is also very excited for the upcoming baptism of one of his investigators this Saturday. "We just reviewed all the different commandments with her, and it’s obvious that she is extremely ready to take this next step. She really couldn’t be any more prepared, and we’re really looking forward to this Saturday."

New Companion

After several months serving in Oregon, the last transfers affected Christian for the first time. He is still serving in the same area, but Elder Haynes, who he had served with since he first got to Oregon, was transfered out and now Elder Whitby has a new companion. Haynes and Whitby were pretty good buddies and got along well and Christian will miss him. He has a very positive outlook on his relationship with his new companion, Elder Brown. "As for my new companion, Elder Brown, he’s a hard working missionary, and I’m sure there’s a lot I can learn from him . . . I know that I might not like every companion I’m with, but I do know that I can make a difference in whether or not we can still get along and work hard, which is what I’m trying to do."

Christian has spent a lot of time knocking on doors and tracting. "Our tracting efforts are yet to yield any apparent results, but I guess that’s just how it goes sometimes. We’re certainly get more accomplished than if we were just sitting around, even if we can’t always see it right away. And I’ve found already that even if we don’t have any success with tracting, we will still be blessed in other ways for our efforts."

It's been great hearing from Elder Whitby and his progress. It is crazy to believe he is almost at the 6 month mark! He continues to work hard, and we love hearing from him.

Update and Pictures!

With snow and sicknesses well gone, the Elders have been able to stay very busy and get lots of work done. Christian expresses every week how he cannot believe how quickly time goes by. He is happy, healthy, and truly enjoying his service.

Christian shared a "first" in one of his recent emails.

I also had my first, eh...spiritual debate, if you will. An older man answered one of the doors we knocked and stepped outside and said that he was really glad we had stopped by, and wanted to talk with us. After hours and hours of tracting without any success, this certainly seemed like the opportunity we had been waiting for, until he continued and said, "I used to be a Mormon, until I studied science. Now, I know that you and the Jehova's Witnesses are just the craziest people out there." And thus he proceded to explain why we were crazy and brainwashed and that religion didn't do anyone any good (and yet he said that we all need to learn to love one another--was this not Jesus' great commandment, the basic principle behind all of His teachings?). He told us that he believed in science because it was fact (though in truth much of it is just ideas that haven't yet been proven wrong) and that we believed in crazy magic (while, of course, a brief study of the history of science will prove that magic is nothing more than that which science can not yet explain). I was, somehow, able to refrain from actual making any debate with him--which is why I had to throw all my points into this email, just so I can get them out!--and instead simply bore my testimony that all the studying in the world of man's knowledge could not compare to the simple yet powerful witness that I had received from the Spirit of God that our message was true. Granted, this didn't make much of an impact on him, but it was all in all a really interesting experience, and I can see how much worse it would have gotten had we tried to actually debate our point.

As hard as he works, it seems that there is still time for some fun and typical goofy guy stuff. Christian finally sent pictures our way, so here are some from the last several months.

It has been so awesome hearing from Christian and hearing about all of his experiences! He sure is making us proud.

Missionary Excitement

This last week Christian had an interesting experience. I think the story would be told best in his own words . . .

Well, things are going pretty well out here in Oregon--for me, at least. Elder Haynes, unfortunately, seems to be falling apart at the seams. He's been having trouble sleeping, getting migraines, having a lot of problems with his knee, and, most recently, got hemmorrhoids (don't worry, I've been given permission to share this, because there's actually a pretty good story that goes with it).

Friday evening he noticed that there was something unsual going on in that region, and by Saturday morning it was bad enough that he could barely walk. We weren't sure what it was, however, and Elder Haynes, understandably, did not really want to talk to Sister Dyches (who handles all the medical stuff with missionaries) himself about this, so I offered to make the call for him. Still, because we didn't really know what the problem was, I had to simply describe it to the best of my abilities. It went about as follows:

"Well, Sister Dyches, I've been thinking, and I don't think there's a delicate way to put this. Elder Haynes...has a large, painful lump...on his...bum hole."

Thankfully everythings been working out a bit better since, and he wasn't off his feet for too long. Not the most exciting story, I realize, but we don't get a whole lot of excitement in our lives, so we take what we can get.

Because of his companion's health, they haven't been able to get out and teach as much as they'd like. They did go on blitzes with the APs and splits with the ZLs. They also taught a girl the last doctrinal lesson before she is baptized, and Christian expressed how neat it is to see the progress she has made.

Winter in Oregon

The snow started in the middle of December. A few inches of snow left the elders housebound. "One of the safety rules for our mission is that missionaries are not allowed to drive their cars if there is any snow on the road. And though Elder Haynes and I can still at least walk around near our house and tract there, we've both been battling colds, and so we had to stay inside to keep ourselves from getting worse. So, we've spent the last few days sitting around the house dying of boredom. Thankfully a few more movies have been approved to watch just for this month, so we've been watching those again and again. So far, we've seen Chronicles of Narnia twice, once with the audio commentary, Ratatouille three times, Cars twice, and Bridge to Terabithia three times (since Sunday). Not only this, but we've watched every bonus feature available on the DVDs, including previews for movies that came out several years ago."

Several of us got to talk to Christian on Christmas Day. It was a nice surprise, since we thought he would only get to call Mom and Dad. It was great talking to Christian, and hearing he was doing well. He was taken care of very well for the holidays again. He had two dinners on Christmas Eve and a brunch on Christmas Day. The couple he and his companion live with also left out stockings and other goodies for the elders. Christian also made cinnamon rolls and sparkling cider for himself and his companion, Elder Haynes.

What started as a few inches of snow turned into a huge snow storm that no one in Oregon really knew how to handle! During all this snow, the elders have spent a lot of time with the Tapasa family.

Now that the snow has finally cleared, Christian has enjoyed getting back to work. "I'm thrilled to be able to say that the snow has finally gone, and we've been able to get outside and get a lot of work done. It's nice to finally get out and get some work done, and to feel like a real missionary again."