T's Canadian Newsletter

Family, friends, hello.

 

This week's edition of T's canadian newsletter features a happier tale than last weeks.

 

First, in response to recent demands, here are some weird facts about canada:

Milk comes in bags

you pronounce bags as if you were to say baegs, like baegle.

color is colour, favorite is favourite, and similar misspellings are common

they really do say eh. But it's not weird because it's similar to how i say yeah? or right?. as in: we're headed to the park yeah? you wanted the blue ball right?

The new currency they released is indestructable... mostly, waterproof, tearproof, fire proof. I think they mostly have it for big bills.

They accept american currency, but most places just count it as canadian currency, which means you lose something like three cents on the dollar.

I currently reside in a town called Aurora. Which is probably an hour northeast of downtown Toronto.

 

Now, if that satisfies everybody, we'll get along with the meat.

 

I mentioned that life is getting better. It is. We have our own apartment which means we don't have to drive 20 kilometers to get to our area. and a lot of the time we can walk to whatever we want. We still have to drive quite a bit, which makes it nice that we have a car.

 

The week was fairly standard not a lot happened. We met some cool people on the street. Some pretty good potentials. Things really took off, however, when we went on exchanges on friday with the district leaders.

 

Before I go there, I want to mention a family that we taught on thursday night. They are from Brazil. The wife is a member, the husband is not. Wife is called Eve, Husband is named Fabio. Their children are too young to be baptized. We went in thinking that we would be targeting the message toward the husband. It went well, he was rather receptive, sort-of quiet. They told us that they love having the missionaries over because of the respect they have for what we are doing. (she has two brothers who served and a nephew who is currently serving) The real surprise came when we invited them to church. Instead of Fabio rejecting us, Eve

did. She said that she had been raised in the church, but that she had realized that she didn't have a testimony. She felt like a hipocrite, here she was, a primary president, teaching children stories that she didn't believe. She had to stop. She tried to find her testimony, but grew tired and gave up. She agreed to let us help her try to find it. And Fabio agreed too. They said we could meet with them again in two weeks. That brings our official investigator tally up to one!

 

So, Friday, I was sent to a town called Orangeville with the Elder who is serving as our district leader. He had a lesson planned for a lady called Renee whom they had ran into on the street. She didn't like being catholic because of the lack of childrens programs. The important part of the story is that at the end of the lesson, I was trusted with the responsibility of inviting her to be baptized! After some things were explained and she had some questions answered, she said yes! She is scheduled to be dunked on May 12 ish. I think. After that we went on some visits around to ward members and came back to Newmarket so that he could officiate a baptismal interview for an investigator who belongs to the sisters north of us.

 

Upon returning, we learned that our companions had done some heavy lifting in Aurora. They got about 13 phone numbers from people on the street. Coordinated about 5 return appointments. They literally did more work in one afternoon tha either of us had seen in a week. So, we have around 5 appointments on tuesday, plus whatever we come up with after that! The district leader has only been out for nine months and between the three other Elders in the district, he has more experience than all of us combined. He calls it "Exchange Magic"

 

So, Saturday Elder Binford and I set off to meet with our forst appointment. An 81 year old man named George who is from Ireland. He used to meet with missionaries, but took a break when they switched from Elders to Sisters. At least one person likes us better. He likes joking about God zapping people with lightning for misbehaving. After a fun lesson with him, we scheduled a return appointment for this wednesday.

 

After meeting with George, we went a couple of doors down to knock on the door of a man named Shane who also used to meet with the missionaries. The intel we had on him said that he had a weird fascination with thinking that God and Jesus and Angels were Aliens... Yes Aliens. So naturally this spiked my interest and made me really excited to meet him. Even though our intel also said that he had turned to the internet and found some anti-material. (Anti, Antied: missionary slang for things that pull people away.) The particular anti material referenced a conference talk by I think it was Russel M Nelson back in 97 where he talks about the Urim and Thummim. This info was connected with the rumors that Joseph Smith was a gold rusher (once upon a time, Smith did work for a man who was digging trying to find a silver mine, Joseph convinced the man to give up. You can find that story in Joseph Smith History verse 56. He says this is where the rumors were started). These two stories were merged into the story that Joseph Smith would tell people that he could find gold with his magic hat and rock, they would pay him to find gold, he would take their money, and run. Shane called him a con-artist. He also found some stuff to do with the priesthood and blacks. He wouldn't listen to us.

 

After that made my day even more though. We went to meet with a man named Chris who sometimes liked discussing gospel with the missionaries in his driveway. He told us we were welcome to continue that practice saturday afternoons. He's not the cool story though.

 

The cool story is his next door neighbor who we knocked on his door. His name is John. His parents are members, he is not. While we talked to him you could see his eyes light up. He invited us back, tuesday afternoon. After arguing with a man like Shane, this was just what I needed to get back into the swing of things.

 

I think my favorite part about this week was teching lessons. Especially Renee, George, and John. They all had the light in their eyes that says they felt the spirit. I have high hopes that all three of them will get dunked.

 

So, there you have it. Plus a few pictures. I'm really looking foreward to tuesday. We get to have dinner at the home of the FLIPPING PRESIDENT OF NIKE CANADA! Second coolest guy ever. (there are some awesome people in our ward including a guy who is recieving the medal of canada, or something like that. It's basically the highest civillion honor a canadian can get. Comperable to being knighted. He's a non-member husband to a member though.) Tuesday is going to rock. If we play our cards right, we can hit the standards of excelence. (a set of mission wide goals that only 9% hit all of them.) All this after only our second week here!

 

I love you all. I will talk to you soon.

 

Love,

Elder T

Week 2 ... ish

Family, Friends... Hello.

 

This is e'mail number two, even though I have been out for what I thought was four weeks but is really only not quite three.... Yikes.

 

Canada has been very wet so far. Not like Utah where it will fluxuate from extreme to extreme. It's pretty consistant. So wet, I had to go and get myself a rain jacket. We found a nice post-winter sale and found a very sweet snowboarding jacket that was almost conservative enough for a mission. It was warm, waterproof, dark, solid color. The only problem was that the inside of the hood was orange.... It wasn't crazy expensive either... Would have definitely been worthy of the money they were asking for it because it would have lasted me like 10 years or so... but the orange killed that idea... So I stuck with a light waterproof rain jacket that will keep me dry, but not super warm. I figure that's okay because april is supposed to be wet but warm here. and it is! about 19 degrees C today. big step up from the 4 we've had the past few days.

 

It's crazy diverse out here, I've met people from ugo-slavia, Iran, Jamaica, Taiwan... Lots of Nationalities. Our mission has the most languages of any mission in the world. Korean, Portugues, Spanish, French, English, Farsee (Iran, Iraq, Egypt, middle eastern language), and Mandarin... maybe there was another... idk. But it is the only mission in the world with missionaries who speak Farsee. The language is so rare amongst missionaries that there isn't a program for them to learn it at the MTC. So, they just go for their traditional language then they show up here and Surprise! Guess what??!? You're speaking Farsee! kind of cool.

 

I Arrived in Canada at about 2:00 your time, which would really be around noon, my time. For my first time flying I have to say I enjoyed it a lot more than I had expected. I thought that It would be a lot more jarring than it was. The thing that impressed me the most was the sheer speed we were traveling just before take-off. Add that with a little turbulence to wake you up at 3 am, and my grin was bigger than the cheschire cat's.

 

After a lot of monotonous meetings and dinners and interviews, i finally got to meet my companion Tuesday afternoon... His name is Elder Binford, from Fresno California. He was saying that we were going to not necessarily hide how old I really am, but maybe not broadcast it. He was trying to relieve some of the tension that can be created when a senior companior or a trainer, of which he claims both titles but he doesn't hold that over me since he has only been out for three months.

 

Unbeknown to him however. Being younger makes me more popular! The ward loves me! There are a couple of boys who are prepping for missions who bore their testimonies on sunday of how inspiring it was for them to have a missionary in the ward who was younger than them. (That's right boys, keep stroking my ego).

 

Our area is called the NewMarket south area. We are responsible for the southern half of our ward boundaries. There is a sister missionary companionship who are responsible for the north area in the ward. Sister Green has been out for three months and sister Lang Came up the same day as me.

 

Because we are in a brand new area, we don't have an appartment... yet... We are staying with this old geezer who reminds me of Gpa Todd. Only because he knows how much he can get away with. So he does. You have to second guess every word out of his mouth and he harrasses store clerks with as much sympathy as Papa Todd. He says he's allowed to because he's old. "you can do whatever you want when you're old" He tells us he won't cook for us but then he makes a two-course breakfast. He's fantastic. We love him and he loves us even more. He tells us to call him mom because that's his job right now, to look after us. So naturally that makes us doubly tidy so he doesn't have to. I could go on and on.

 

NewMarket South is brand new. It used to just be NewMarket but for whatever reason they split it into two, gave the sister's the north and us the south. It's kind of nice having just one bishop to worry about as compared to the dozens the Grantsville missionaries doubtless have to coordinate with.

 

On the downside is the fact that all the investigators that NewMarket had before it split live on the north side. So, we on the south have literally nothing to go off of. Just some couple year old past investigator slips that we check up on every day so we have something to do. Everything else we do is street contacting and tracting. Neither of which are very effective. Except for the first day.

 

The first day, Tuesday, We didn't know what exactly our area was, so we just went out and got cooking. The first guy to answer was a man from ugo-slavia (spell check) who chatted with us for around 40 min on  his doorstep. He seemed really receptive. Looked up Mormon.org on his phone and started watching a video by Elder Holland, accepted a BOM, even scheduled a return appointment. Come to find out, once we figured out what our area is, he wasn't in our area. Have a freebie, sisters... We have met a few people who we then had to turn over to the sisters. They have more work than they can handle. It's almost like a sick joke. Two baptisms coming up..... Call me jelly...

 

The second fella we talked to that I want to tell you about met us a couple of days later on Friday. We just happened to bump into him and his girlfriend in the parking lot as we headed to go check up on someone else (she ended up having moved) we struggled with him for about a half hour or so, gave him a BOM and a card before he let us go. I say struggled because he was really fidgety. And wouldn't sit still long enough to let us finish our thought before he was asking some other question. Come to find out on Saturday he was high. We saw him walking down the street, so naturally, we chased him. He kept looking over his shoulder at us and fidgeted with his pocket as he was walking away. When we caught up to him and he finally recognized us he confessed that he had his knife out and was fixing to defend himself until he recognized us when we got about ten yards away from him. That's when he said, "yeah that chat we had yesterday was fresh eh? Yeah, I was baked as **** though... **** I'm high right now too eh?" I don't think We're gonna hear much from him, but you know... I hope so. That'd be a cool story for posterity.

 

I hope everyone is well and doing great. I love this new rule that we can e-mail anybody. It makes it easier to keep in touch.

 

I love you all. Even you sorely lost and confused bloggers who are probably looking for information on Italian Basketball star Trent Whiting. I wish you well in your search.

 

Love

Elder T

 

 

Elder Whiting's Address

Apparently the address we had listed for Trent is not really valid. A new physical address will be posted soon. in the meantime you can email him at:

twhiting@myldsmail.net

Pictures from Toronto

Elder Whiting in Toronto

Elder Whiting and Elder Binford

Elder Whiting with President and Sister Scott

Elder Whiting with his zone

April 8, 2013

Got a phone call from Elder Whiting. He has safely landed in Toronto! I will post an address when I get one.

-Mom

Big hello to anyone who is reading this from the MTC!

 

Since I got here wednesday this is the first break that I've had. It has really been 120 mph the whole way. In the week + day that I've been here I have taught something like 6+ lessons to "investigators." I use the quotes because one of the investigators is an alter ego that my teacher personifies and we teach him, and I'm sure that the other people my companion and I have taughtare already members who are re-living their conversion story. this one guy we have met with twice, last night being the second time we met with him and we got him to commit to be baptized! Kind of cool. My companion and I were pretty excited about that.

 

My Companion's name is Elder Sam Kennedy, he is going to Las Vegas west, and originally he wasn't supposed to be my companion. There was an Elder who didn't show up for whatever reason so instead of having three companionships, our district is A companionship (as in one) and a trio. Elder Kennedy is from newcastle England. It can be really hard to understand him sometimes but I think that it would have been worse if I hadn't seen so many episodes of Top Gear. He is absolutely hilarious, he has a one-liner for almost every situation and his British sense of humor is so different from ours that I wonder if he is slightly crazy...... but I doubt it.

 

The trio in our district is made up of a nerd (he embrases the stereotype, so it's ok that I call him that. he told me so.) a spaz (he resents that term but it fits him so he can deal. His mental state of mind is up and down like a yoyo. But he always gets really energetic at night when he's had his can of root beer.....) and a high school football star from Calgary Alberta. (he was supposed to be my companion, we get along really well. Whenever we have gym we go on a split so that the two of us can work out.) Together we combine to make a beautiful band of misfits whose weaknesses are outweight by our combined strengths, and that's how it should be.

 

So, last thursday (the second day in the MTC) Elder Kennedy and I were asked to be Zone leaders. Which really kind of works like a Monty Python skit. We take it in turns to make executive decisions for the week which have to be approved at a by-weekly meeting etc...... No, really all we have to do since we'll only be here for a week is to make the new missionaries feel welcome. If it weren't conference weekend, we would have to attend a barrage of meetings taking up almost all day of our so-called day of rest on sunday. here, P-day pretty much takes that title. But since there is conference, the new missionaries will have to deal with all the meetings. best of luck to them.

 

I really am here at the MTC right at the best time possible. I'm only here for less than two weeks, but I'm here for easter sunday, and conference sunday. So in the shortest amount of time possible, I am here for two of the most looked foreward to religous weekends of the year.

 

Last week was easter sunday, so we had a special sacrament meeting where a General Authority would come and speak to us. we got to hear from presiding bishop Coseeh. (spell check? he's french, cut me some slack eh?) we even got a note telling us that he might come and visit our branch's testimony meeting. He didn't but it didn't stop me from hoping he would until after the meeting was over. Testimony meeting is a cool thing. It opens a door into the hearts of your companions that you usually don't get to look through and you learn something to help you love them even more.

 

Tuesday night we had a devotional by an area president of the 70 named Ringwood, who is over the korea area. He spoke about enduring to the end. Which was much needed because our district had been struggling with that. Particularly one of the sisters who broke her foot playing basketball in gym last friday...... She had just found out that tuesday that she will have to stay in the MTC for another few weeks before reporting to Las Vegas west with her fellow sisters. Us elders got to give her a blessing of comfort that night, and she picked me to be the voice. That was cool, my first priesthood blessing.

 

One last cool experience I had is actually kind of embarrasing. I was having a bit of trouble adjusting to the new schedule and the amount of work that we were doing and it was being expressed by my struggles dozing during class (this is also true of just about everyone in our district). I never actually fell asleep, but we would often have to pause during class and stand up and stretch etc... One day was particulary bad, when one of my teachers, brother Johnson had an idea. We are assigned to choose a christlike attribute to work on while on our missions. He asked if I had picked one yet and when I told him I hadn't, he suggested I work on my diligence. Which didn't seem like a problem for me until I researched it in Preach My Gospel and it mentioned that be being diligent we gain more energy. That sold me. I have been working on it ever since and even just a few days after begining this journey, I have improved by leaps and bounds.

 

I really can't express how much else has happened because my journal is being embossed right now so I can't look back, but I think that might be all... Or as much as I can express because being here is quite literally like drinking through a fire hose. Way more knowlege and experiences than you can take in and express. If there's one thing that I think I will remember forever, it's that God is a God of peace and happiness and joy, therefore, we can't feel the spirit when we are upset. This seems like a no-brainer, but the epiphany I had, was that when I had tried to feel the spirit previously, I took it too seriously, i think. I think I would try to put myself in a bad mood on purpose because the spirit was supposed to be a serious thing and you have to be very serious to feel it. Which is true, you can't be silly about it. But you do have to be happy, as I've found that answers come to mind more readily when I am happy and in a good mood. There's your spiritual thought.

 

I love you all and miss you! See you in 23 fast sundays! or something like 100 ish letters.

 

-Elder T

Elder Priest and Elder Whiting

MTC

Goodbye U.S.A., hello Canada! If any of you want to write me a letter, you can send it to this address:
Elder Trent Whiting
MTC Mailbox # 54
CAN-TOR 0408
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793
Please do, I would love to keep in touch!

-Trent the Elder.