BAPTISMSSSSSSSS

Hey everyone! So Ill start out with the miracle we had this week!!

So we've been teaching this kid named Oscar for most of this change and trying to get him baptized. He always made excuses and lied so that he wouldn't have to get baptized. It turns out that he broke his arm in the church and was scared to get baptized. So we talked to him on Friday night and I told him, "hey would you get baptized if we brought a swimming pool and baptized you in you house?" 

He said, "ok when??"

I was like what the heck it took so much for this kid to get baptized and this worked? Haha so the next day we baptized him in a pool! Two elders brought an inflatable pool and we did it right there in his house!!! haha the Lord really does work in mysterious ways I have to be honest. 

Anyway I'm going to complete 1 year on the mission on the 18th and its crazy! Ill send pics for what we do next week!! 

We had pday yesterday and it was one of the funnest ive ever had here in the mission! We played a ton of soccer and then we had a huge water balloon fight!! 

More next week!! Stay smiling because you have the true and restored gospel in your life. 

Keep firm and push through your trials, the Lord has your back.

Love you all!!

Elder Whelan

A Seed

Hey everyone!!! So were doing good over here in Las Delicias. Not too much has happened in the last week to be honest. The baptisms have kind of slowed down and now me and Companion are trying to find more people to teach and baptize. 

Something I've realized while being here on my mission is that in order to find miracles we need to be willing to work as hard as we can. We need to be willing to give our all in order to find the chosen people of the Lord. My companion and I are doing just that. We have a couple people lined up for baptism but well have to see what happens with them. I know that the Lord has more people prepared for us. That includes the people in other missions. It may be a little hard to baptize in other parts of the world. But that does not matter at all. What matters is that the work of the Lord is the same in each place. We never know how a seed will grow if we don't first plant it. 

Thats something I've taught my district. We're accustomed to talking to every person that we meet here. Being friends with them and helping them get closer to God. That is planting a seed and preparing someone to be baptized for the next generation of missionaries to come in and help them take that first step. Im coming to a year in the mission. And I can honestly say that I know how important the Lords work is. We just have to be willing to open our mouths.  

Anyway I don't have much else to say other than that I love my mission, my family, all of you, and most of all, my Savior and redeemer Jesus Christ. Open your mouths and share the message of the only true gospel that is here on the Earth today. The Lord will bless you for your efforts even if a person doesn't want to listen to what you have to say. I love you guys, and thank you for all of your support.

Elder Whelan

Pics of Antigua and my comp took a pic of me in the sun. It was super cold there and I was cold hahaha

Miracles

HEY EVERYONE!!!!!

Christmas and New Years were great, but we kind of avoided members because I know how the holidays are are here. Members can get very jealous and if they had known that we spent time with one family during the holidays they would get super jealous! :)

So I'll get down to the title since I don't have too much time left. My last companion Elder Diaz called our president to see if I could go back to my last area and do the baptisms of some people over there. He gave me permission to go over to Hunapu again and on Sunday I went. We got to the church over there and I met Elder Diaz outside. The first thing is says to me is.. There aren't any baptisms... I yelled what?? Then Elder Diaz told me that Yisseña didn't want to get baptized because she was scared. She said that if she didn't get baptized neither would her 8 year old daughter Leyla. So I told him I wanted to talk to her. 

We entered the church and I called Yisseña into a room and figured everything out about what and why she didn't want to get baptized. Some of the stuff I can't tell you guys because it's personal for her and I respect her enough not to tell you guys haha. But one of the reasons was that other people were texting her and telling her a bunch of bad things about what would happen to her if she got baptized in our church. So I called Elder Diaz in the room and we talked to her for about an hour trying to get here baptized. She felt cold in her body and felt that she couldn't do anything, so I told her we're going to pray and you're going to talk with our father in heaven to know what to do. 

I knew that was the turning point for her, because 5 mins later after she prayed she said, ok let's do it. I'm so happy I was able to go back there and help her and her family make this decision to be in the church. The Lord really does guide our words and I'm so glad he was able to guide mine enough for her to make the decision to be baptized. Elder Diaz baptized her and I got to baptize Leyla. I love this family and I know why I'm here now. 

Other than that we had another baptism of an old man named Fransisco Sanchez. Hes 75 years old and was a miracle. We found him and he was able to get baptized within 1 week. I'm so happy that the Lord has given me this chance to be here in Guatemala. To bring these people the true and restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I love my saviour and will never forget what he did for me and everyone else on the Earth. Other than that not much has happened in our area. Were looking for more people to baptize and I know that Lord has them prepared for us. It's a new year and one I'm sure we will see many many miracles.

Tell Simon I said Happy Birthday! I'll get him something from Antigua. 

See y'all in 1 more year!!!!!!!!!

I love you guys!!!!

Elder Whelan

CHRISTMASSSSSSS

Hey, everyone! Once again, I don't have too much to write today, but I got to talk to my fam yesterday and that was so great! The little boys are huge and my bro is going on a mission pretty soon! YES! (even though I'll end up not seeing him for almost 3.5 years!) 

Anyway I don't have time today because I spent most of the time writing thanks to some people for the Christmas stuff I got from them. haha sorry!!

We baptized a child named Alejandro this Sunday and we have two more this Sunday. We will see what happens![Editor's note: We found out from Elder Diaz, Kollin's last comp., that a widow and her daughter are also getting baptized, but it happened just after Kollin was transferred. Kollin was bummed that he couldn't stay to baptize her, but he's still so happy for her. We're excited also be emailing Elder Diaz because he'll fill us in on all of the details that Kollin forgets to tell us. :)]

I love you all!! Keep lighting the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Whelan

Picts: some gifts, my comp, a cigarrette, [Editor's note: it's a family tradition to smoke one cigarette every Christmas, so this must be Kollin's Christmas smoke. JUST KIDDING. He didn't explain why he took a picture of this, probably took it from an investigator.] macaroni and cheese with root beer. I haven't had root beer in over a year!

Elder Whelan, Are You Ready?

Hey everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I got a surprise call last week from my president. Elder Whelan are you ready to be a zone leader? Ummmm sure? Ok so you're going to an area called Las Delicias in Santa Lucia. and you'll be finishing the training of an elder named Elder Richens. Then I thought, wait that means district leader not zone leader. And then he tells me, are you ready to take that position on? "Yes president" while thinking... NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hahaha I didn't want the position but I know that I'm supposed to be here as someone to help my district. 

It was hard to leave, especially one family. They were like my own family here in Guatemala. I didn't want to leave them. They have 3 girls and a son, the oldest is married, the son is one a mission, and then 15 and 12. My comp was really sad to see me go. As I said before, he doesn't have a family at home, and only a few friends who email him. [Editor's note: we're planning on starting to email Elder Diaz, and will be posting his emails in a blog as well. Feel free to email him if you'd like. :) ]

So I had my first district meeting and workshop and apparently everyone loved it. I talked about faith. The Elders in my district told me that it was very well done and that they learned a lot from it. So its all good!!!! 

I'll send more information about it to my family and they can put it in my blog. I don't have time to say it all. But I want everyone to know that faith is everything tying us to this church. Without faith we are nothing and we wouldn't believe that there is a Savior who sacrificed everything for us. 

Anyway...

 

MERRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYY 

CHRRRRRIIIIIISSSSSSTTTTTMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I'll talk to the fam on Monday!!!!

I love you all!!

Elder Whelan

I Saved a Cat!

Hey guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So not too much happened this week to be honest! We're still teaching The Wolf Family and were looking for more people to teach. One thing that is sometimes hard for me being here is that when the people reject us, they don't know what they're rejecting. They just think that were here to change their religion. But were really here to teach them the true meaning of the gospel of Jesus Christ!!! Its like hey we want to teach you about Jesus Christ, oh you guys worship that Joseph Smith guys right? NOOOOO haha we worship god and his son Jesus Christ! STILL!!! The name of our church literally has Jesus Christ in the name! Haha anyway its just one of those things were the person has to be prepared to listen to us and receive us. If they don't have an open heart, then they're obviously not going to listen or understand the lesson. 

One thing that gives me comfort though is the fact that if they don't accept the message here, then they'll receive it after this life, in your face haha! 

But one thing that makes me happy: everyone down here reminds me of Nacho Libre, the only difference they don't speak English. :)

On another note.. I saved a cat! 

We were walking in the street and I hear this mewing from a cat. It was dark and I almost didn't see it. Its orange and white but you couldn't tell because it was wet and super dirty. I brought it to a members house and they cleaned it up. The next day they told me that somebody had thrown boiling water on it and tried to kill it. Jerks... 

Anyway I saved another life! Someone else baptized him and I gave him a family!!! They named him Kollin...and they can't even pronounce his (my) name correctly! :)

YES! ETERNAL FAMILY! 

Haha just kidding, but I was glad I was able to save him. Now he follows me everywhere I go when were at that members house...

We have a mission Christmas party this Friday. It's about 20-30 minutes from my area. We're lip syncing to a Pentatonix song for the skit. We're actually pretty good.

Anyway sorry I dont have more to write to you guys!!! Butttttt read the book of mormon!!!!!!!!

Love you guys!!!!!!!!

Elder Whelan

P.S Ill send pics next week!!!!!

Angels Sent from God

Hey everyone!! 

So not too much happened this week. I'll just share the miracle we had this week. So remember Familia Lobo? So they came to a church activity on Friday. It was very good to be honest. They used me as kind of a prop. They put a chair in the middle of the room and tied a tie to my eyes so that I couldn't see and had me walk to it. I found the chair and sat in it. They had me do that again but with a guide. The object of the lesson was that I was scared trying to find the chair the first time, but the second time I had a guide to lead me to the chair and wasn't scared. 

The point of the lesson was that when we have the Holy Ghost to guide us we should never be scared but we should also be worthy to have his presence because when we don't, we can get scared and lonely. After the activity we sat outside for like an hour just talking about our beliefs with them and they absolutely loved it. They told us that everything that they were told about us and the church were contrary to what we really do. After that we walked them back to their house and we talked some more haha. They told us that they loved the church and told us that they wanted to get baptized. They had some questions about that and we told them that the only way to really know if this was the church they should join is by prayer. And they made a commitment with us that they would do exactly that. 

Now I'll explain the title: I cant really remember exactly what we were talking about at this moment, but the woman named Carolina told us, "And God sent two angels at the perfect time to come and talk to us about his church. Were so grateful that you two angels are here to help us and teach us." At this moment, I felt the spirit so strongly. Stronger than I've felt in a long time. 

At this moment I really found the reason for why I am out here serving. To bring the message of the restored gospel to the chosen people of the Lord.

Anyway I don't have more time to write but that was our miracle this week. This family wants to be baptized and now we just have to figure out when!

It's funny to read Braeden's emails sometimes, he just wrote about seeing a scorpion for the first time. I've seen tons of them. I've had to kill a lot of them too!  :)

Love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Whelan

Picts: 

Took a trip to the offices

Super tight shirt

We painted a members house

And new soccer shoes