Happy (kind of late) Thanksgiving everyone!

Most of this week was pretty normal, but there were a few cool memories I wanted to share!

Not much out of the ordinary happened on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Thursday was a really fun day! Being Thanksgiving, it was a full day P-Day and we spent most of the day hanging out with the rest of the Phoenix Zone. We played some basketball, card games, and had our own Turkey Bowl all before dinner at 2. the only downside was that during the game someone drop-kicked the football over a fence and when I went to go get it I ended up cutting the palm of my hand and ripping my pants in the process. It wasn’t my brightest idea or the best outcome, but thankfully I know how to sew and take care of cuts like that so my pants are completely fixed and my hand is healing pretty quickly. I decided to wrap it with a fabric bandage to help keep the bandaids on and keep people from shaking it which worked surprisingly well.

Afterwards we had Thanksgiving dinner with a family from the ward and it was really good! They smoked their turkey instead of sticking it in the oven and, because of the wood they used, it was like eating a good smelling, turkey flavored campfire. We talked with them for a bit after and then shared a message before saying goodbye. We spent the rest of the night hanging out at the church some more, though we also dropped off a pumpkin pie to a friend of ours on the drive from dinner. Overall, it was a nice Thanksgiving and I had a lot of fun!

On Friday Elder Smith and I went to a meeting called 6 Week where they review your first 6 weeks of training with everyone you came out with. It was nice to see my travel group and exciting that I’m halfway through training!

Later that night we stopped by our Swahili speaking friends and gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon in their native language that a member happened to have. We’re still not entirely sure why the member had it, but we gave it to our friends and they seemed happy to receive it. God clearly wanted them to have it seeing as we couldn’t find a copy anywhere else, including the mission office.

To top the week off, I got my second flat tire on Saturday which was a little annoying and we spent about an hour or so at the Mission Office today getting it fixed and having my brakes adjusted. With that all taken care of though, I’m ready to roll again!

That’s really all the interesting things that happened this week, so I’ll just leave you with with my testimony that God blesses those who need his gospel by providing all of us (not just the missionaries) with a way to share it with them. We would not have been able to give our Swahili friends a Book of Mormon if the Lord had not provided it through a member of His church. If you know anyone who could really use the gospel in their lives or who is simply searching for peace, I invite you to share with them the blessings you have received from the Gospel and to meet with the missionaires. Invite them to come and see, especially during this time of year when we celebrate the birth and importance of Christ! I can promise that, as you do, God will bless your efforts and theirs. I love you all so much and I’m excited to share this Christmas season with you from Arizona! Until next time!

Sincerely,
Elder Whitchurch
D&C 45:9

Funny Story:
On Wednesday night Elder Smith and I got home early to do some additional study and, while making a snack, found a tub of cheeseballs that was gifted to Elder Barrow. We decided it would be funny to take a picture of my hand in the cheeseball tub and send it to him and Elder Hanson. 

While we were waiting for them to see and respond to it we had the brilliant idea to empty almost all of the cheeseballs into another container and make them think we (for lack of a better term) pigged out. We did it and their look of disbelief when they got home was hilarous! What was even more fun was when we put them back the next day and acted like nothing happened. Elder Barrow was a good sport about it and we all had a good laugh in the end.