The holiday season is officially the craziest time of year for missionary work that I’ve experienced here in Arizona.
Not only is working with our friends’ schedules and getting members to join lessons difficult, but we also had yet another day and a half cut out of our schedule due to the new year so we’ve been working hard to make up for it.
Speaking of which (abrupt topic change), HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I know I haven’t written since Christmas, but its been crazy busy since then as I mentioned. Because of that we’ve had a lot of cool experiences that I want to share!
On New Year’s Eve we got to watch Elder Holland’s funeral which was beautiful. That night we spent from 4 to 9 pm with the zone at the church playing games and basketball as always.
We spent most of New Year’s Day at the church again, but we also had a barbeque at a member’s house for lunch where we enjoyed a great meal of grilled steak and chicken with a side of oreos!
The day after the New Year I graduated at our 12 week celebration which means I’m no longer in training! To celebrate, Elder Smith and I had some shaved ice at Joe’s Italian Ice. I’m so glad I made it the full two transfers, but mostly glad that I got to spend it learning from Elder Smith!
We’ve taught a lot of really cool people together (esspecially in the last few weeks) and seen the many blessings and challenges of sharing the gospel with others. We haven’t seen much success with our current friends, but we know that if we keep working diligently things will work out the way they’re supposed to! Overall, these past few weeks have been the perfect way to end the transfer and we look forward to the next 6 weeks to come!
Speaking of transfers, we got news this morning for where everyone in the mission is going come Wednesday! We found out that Elder Smith will be going to Grandview in Tempe which is awesome! As for me, (pause for dramatic effect) I’m staying in Phoenix with a new companion named Elder North!
I admit that the change is a little nerve racking and I’ll miss Elder Smith quite a bit, but it’s also super exciting to have yet another adventure ahead! I’ve also met Elder North before and he seems really nice, so I’m looking forward to spending at least the next 6 weeks with him!
There’s not much else I can think of to share, so I’ll just end by saying that I know that God lives, loves, and blesses us all! I’ve never wanted to be one of those missionaries who shares a cheesy spiritual thought in every email but, now that I’ve truly felt his hand in my life more than ever and seen all he has done and still does for us, I can’t deny what I now know. I know that He loves us all and it’s through the power of his spirit, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Book of Mormon that we can feel it most.
Along with Heavenly Father, I also love you all and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you from this year and the rest of my mission! Happy New Year and I’ll catch you all next week!!!
Sincerely,
Elder Whitchurch
Alma 42:31
Fun Story:
This week’s story is less of a funny moment and more of a fun experience. While doing some visits around 8 pm we saw a family pushing a truck in their front yard with an older gentleman steering. We walked over and offered our help to which they eagerly agreed and we started pushing. Seeing as they mostly spoke spanish we had a fun time using the rusty spanish I have left and our hard earned muscles (mostly from literally biking up a mountain every day) to push the truck out the front gate to a back gate around the corner. Overall we had a really fun time laughing over the language barrier for my companion and the poor driving of the man at the wheel. Elder Smith and I walked away chuckling as we often do in moments like those.
