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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.