We have travel approval!!

I'm so excited!  Our agency called this morning and told us the good news.  AND they said it shouldn't be a problem to travel before Chinese New Year.  That's the best news ever!  We should know when our consulate appointment is in the morning, and then we can confirm our flights.  It looks like we'll be flying to Seattle and then to Beijing and then to Guangzhou in order to save money.  I wish we could fly directly to Guangzhou, but it's a lot more money.

If we get the consulate date we are asking for, we should be leaving a week from Saturday.  Holy cow!  I have a gazillion things to do!  Ack!

Joshua's email - 1/7/13

Jowlers!  Elder G

Jowler Joshua

 Don't know about "jowling?"  Check this out!

This week has been really good!  We had a district training meeting on Tuesday about the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion.  Elder G is doing really well training the district and helping inspire and uplift everyone in their efforts.  We learned and talked a lot about how important it is to not only keep our covenants and obey the commandments, but to also follow the missionary handbook with exactness.  The handbook is a guide to teach us how to live in such a way that we can always be receptive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, which is incredibly important in missionary work.

After our meeting, I went with Elder L, a missionary from Germany, to Baraboo, WI.  I changed into my service clothes because we were going to be moving a chicken coop from a family's house in Baraboo to another family's house in Portage.  It was pretty cold, and unfortunately I didn't have my coat, but when people here find out that I'm from Montana, they say I don't need a coat, haha.  We spent the next 3.5 hours moving and hauling a chicken coop in the freezing cold, and a foot of snow.  It was pretty fun actually.  We ate dinner with two LDS families, and that was really enjoyable too. We talked a lot about our testimonies, and about Talmage's book, Jesus the Christ.

The next day, we woke up and did service for an old folks' home.  We baked cookies for a couple hours.  Later we got to eat some, so I really enjoyed that too.  We gave a blessing to a lady in the Baraboo ward, and then our exchange was pretty much over.  We literally didn't have any time to proselyte, but I still go into exchanges with a goal that I want to learn at least one thing from my companion.  I learned two things from Elder L. 1) Never get in a car with a German that hasn't driven in a year-and-a-half.  He wasn't exactly the smoothest driver, hahaha!  2) Elder L always thinks about others before he thinks of himself, and I'm always striving to develop that attribute of putting others before myself - which is something my dad is really good at, too.

Wednesday through Friday, we spent a lot of time teaching K the last few lessons before his baptism.  We scheduled and organized his baptismal service, and everything went really smoothly.  We've been working with K for almost three months.  He was supposed to be baptized in December, but he got really sick for about four weeks.  It was really good to see him finally get baptized on Saturday, and the ward welcomed him with open arms.  We were also able to teach a lesson with one of our potential investigators, Leon, who we've been trying to contact for a couple weeks now.  Hopefully something good will come from us continuing to visit him.

Saturday evening after K's baptism, we decided to go tracting.  We've slowly been moving into a finding stage, as we've now baptized S and K, and a few of our investigators have dropped us or vice versa.  We went street contacting and visited potential investigators for a few hours, and we were able to set up a return appointment with an investigator, K, who we feel is very promising.  Afterwards, it was time to tract.  We've begun to pray before we go tracting each time, and Elder G. has a strong opinion that you shouldn't tract just to fill time.  He says we should only tract if we feel inspired to do so, and only tract an area if "we feel good about it."  Haha.  We picked an area to knock, and the first door was opened by a man named K.  Surprisingly, he let us in, and we shared a little bit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him, and talked about baptism.  He seems very promising, and we set up a return appointment for this Saturday.  THE VERY NEXT DOOR, we knocked, and a lady named  came out.  She's a really nice lady in her 40s, and she told us she was familiar with our church, and she studied religion for a few years.  We talked to her about our message for a few minutes and she was very interested.  We set up a return appointment, and then, as directed by the Spirit, we began to talk to her about baptism.  I got the opportunity to invite her to be baptized, and she said, "yes!" with a big smile.  She then said, "you guys are giving me the chills!" as we set up a baptismal date for February 9th.  NO WAY!  Baptismal date set on the doorstep!  We could feel the Holy Ghost incredibly powerfully as we talked to her, and we indicated to her that the feeling she received was from the Holy Ghost.

Anyway, this was pretty much our week!  We got asked to give talks on missionary work this Sunday, so that should be exciting.  We've been pondering a lot about how to get the members involved with missionary work, and so we've begun  to share an awesome message with the ward about bringing friends to church!  Hopefully we'll see some good results from that as well.  Other than that, not much else is going on, other than teaching and finding, and trying to get the members even more involved!  I love Sun Prairie!

I want to challenge all who read this letter to do service for someone this week!  Prayerfully seek someone that you can help AND share the gospel with.  Instead of focusing on only the service, try to find a way that the service you render can help spark a desire to learn more about the gospel.  Look for ways that you can help the missionary efforts by looking for opportunities to teach as you serve.  Just as Ammon served and then taught King Lamoni in the Book of Mormon, you can too.  If you're not sure how to share the gospel with others, pray and ask for the guidance that you need, and it shall be given you. :) Every member a missionary!

Love, Elder Whicker!

Weekly menu

One more week of no Bountiful Baskets due to the holidays.  Argh!  I hate buying produce at the store!

Here's what I have left or have purchased:

potatoes (red and fingerling)

butternut squash

acorn squash

spaghetti squash

broccoli

red bell peppers

mushrooms

French green beans

snow peas

yellow squash

avocados

spring mix salads

shredded cabbage

pineapple

apples

pomegranates

pears

kiwi

mandarin oranges

oranges

bananas

And here's the menu for this week.  I'm not going to post the recipes because they're all re-runs, and I've posted them before.  

Visas!

Today I sent off our Chinese visa applications.  We should have our passports back late next week.  Hopefully we'll have our travel approval soon!

Professor Buttons, aka Aristotle, aka Beef Jerky, aka Big Mama

Curtis and I have been on the lookout for a second cat for a while now.  We had a pretty big list of wants in a cat: declawed (not by us - we didn't want the guilt of it!), female, small, young, and very affectionate.  We had a good possibility come up last week, but that cat ended up going to another family.  We've looked at a few others, but they none of them were very good fits for one reason or another.  Yesterday, though, my dad helped a family move who had a cat they needed to give away.  He told us how amazing the cat was, so we asked him to bring it to us, sight unseen.  HE is not a she, he's HUGE, and he's not declawed.  But he is stunningly beautiful, 3 years old, and the most affectionate cat I've ever had.  He loves to have his tummy rubbed like a dog.  He's absolutely perfect for us!

He seems to be a British Blue, although I'm sure he's not a purebred.  He looks like a lion when he walks.  He's really something to behold.  Now if we could just come up with a name!  We're not overly fond of "Professor Buttons," which is the name he came with.  The other names in the post title are ones that our kids are trying to foist upon him.  ;o)  I don't really know if it's OK to change a cat's name, but I'd love something less cutesy.  Frankly, I think "Grey" is nice.

Joshua's email - 1/2/13

Since the libraries were closed the last two days, Joshua had his p-day today.  I was so happy to hear from him!  He sounds like he's doing great.  :o)  I love the goofy pictures!

This will be short-ish, because we only have 30 minutes to email today. We were really busy this week and the library was closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Last week, we did quite a bit of tracting.  We're slowly moving into kind of a finding stage, but that's okay.  We've already got a few new investigators, so that's good!  We started teaching one of our potential investigators that we found when I first got here.  Hopefully something good will come from that.  His name's B.  He's a really nice guy from  Nigeria.  He's Catholic, but he's very open when it comes to religion, and he has lots of questions.  We gave him a Book of Mormon, and we're continuing to meet with him.

K was supposed to be baptized last Saturday, but he found out late that he had to leave town for the weekend.  We're actually okay with this, because it made it so we wouldn't be so rushed to get him ready for his baptism.  We had time to re-emphasize and reteach lessons that we felt would be necessary.  K is coming along really well though, and we just have one more lesson (which we're teaching him tonight) before he'll be ready for baptism.  Tomorrow we'll organize and schedule his baptismal service! That should be exciting.

Our ward mission leader Brother N, and his wife are EXTREMELY helpful.  We're very convinced that they are angels delivered from  Heaven to aid in the missionary efforts of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.  They've been helping us out a lot lately, as Elder G and I have been really emphasizing getting the members to help in the missionary efforts here.  We've decided that we're going to start sharing with families exactly how they can help with missionary work, and even teach them some of the fundamentals that we're taught as full-time missionaries. That should be good, and hopefully we can find some people to teach and help them receive the gospel!

Sunday, we got asked to teach the lesson for Gospel Principles class.  This is probably the fourth or fifth lesson we've had to teach without sufficient time to prepare, but they always seem to go really well.  My mission/my companion has taught me a TON about how to be an effective, confident teacher, which is something I never thought possible for myself.  I know it's because of my increasing faith in Christ that I'm able to help teach others without nervousness or feelings of doubt!  Moroni 7:33!  I have a strong testimony of that scripture!

Yesterday we had another district meeting, which turned out really well.  Elder G is a really good teacher, and he helped me set a lot of goals for myself.  He's really helped uplift our district a lot as we are all in finding stages at this point, which can be tough sometimes.  Many of the elders in our district constantly compliment him on his trainings, and I feel he has done a really good job at helping everyone to refocus and set and work towards new goals.  It's weird thinking that I've been companions with Elder G. for almost three months!!!!!!!! Next week is our last New Missionary Training (which I'm looking forward to!) and then the week after that I'll have a new companion! CRAZY!  I don't even know what's going to happen, but I'm excited to find out!

Anyway, that's about all from this week.  I actually just got back from exchanges in Baraboo, WI with Elder L (from Germany - very cool kid), who taught me a lot about serving others and putting the Lord, and others, before yourself.  I'll leave a scripture for everyone to ponder over! Mosiah 2:17!

Love you all!

Elder Whicker

Christmas Day!