Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween everyone!!

So this week we have been working a ton!!!!!! Me and Elder Burden have been having a great time clapping houses and walking in the rain hahaha so we weren't able to have the baptism of Cristian this past week but this week it's going to happen for sure!! my new companion is called Elder Burden and he's from Arizona and he ́s super awesome!!! This week I've been helping him with the language a lot because he just got to brazil like a week ago haha But it just goes to show that the gift of tongues is so real and that through small words and acts great things can be done!!! 

I love this gospel so much!! Also! this week there was Halloween and to say in the simplest terms nothing really happened haha they don't celebrate Halloween that much here and there was only a few people trick or treating outside, and there was no decorations or anything haha but oh well i was a little upset but at least there wasn't a ton of people out on the streets except us hahaha I like to think of it as we were clapping houses to give people the sweetest candy there is, the candy of the gospel! sorry about that, probably didn't make sense but I thought it would be funny to say. normally people say no to us so it looks like people in some areas here don't like candy haha but no matter how many people say no, it just adds more fuel to the fire to find someone who is willing to listen and change for the better. I know this church is true, we have a prophet who´s name is Russell M. Nelson and he is receiving revelations and words of god everyday to guide the world in these latter days! I love you all and thank you all for your support and love. I hope all of your weeks have been going good and full of happiness!!

Love Elder Whelan

PS: my companion is flexing his spiritual muscles hahaha

Training

Helloooo! 

So this week was awesome! we had a lot of great teaching experiences and we are now officially baptizing Cristian this week!! Cristian has been taught for more than three years and i have the opportunity to finally baptize him!! I'm super excited for this baptism and the fact that after all this time everyone in this family is going to be baptized!! I have seen the change that the gospel has done in this family so much over the past four and a half months. Oh and by the way my companion got transferred to a place called Navegantes and I'm going to be training!!!! a new elder named Elder Burden haha hopefully he's not too much of a burden but I can for sure handle training. 

I'm super excited and ready to help him learn and teach this amazing gospel! Anyways I'm super close to several baptisms and I'm going to let my new comp do the baptism this weekend so he can say he got straight to the field and baptized someone haha. 

But anyways everyone! miss you all so much! loving it here, and I love my savior, and this gospel!! Hope you all have an amazing week and love you all!!!!

Elder Whelan

Email and picts

Hey everyone!! 

This week went well but was a little sad for me. so we had a baptismal date set for Christian and in the end we decided he wasn't ready so we are going to work a little bit more with him so that he can be better prepared! But other than that this past week went by super fast and fun! transfers are coming up this weekend so I'm ready for transfers haha i love my comp and my area and the people here but sometimes you feel like you've talked with everyone already and that there's nothing left for you in the area (which isn't even true haha) . I'm kinda feeling like that right now. Elder Saavedra has been here for 6 months so he's even more ready than I am to leave haha But anyways me and Saavedra are doing really good, we are working hard and super happy haha just lovin the mission life!!! 

I just want to bear my testimony really quickly that I know this church is true, that Jesus Christ lives and this is his gospel. I know that we have a prophet who lives and guide God's church and children. I know that through repentance and the gospel of Jesus Christ we can be clean of our sins, and live in peace, and happiness. I know that families can be forever! I hope you all have an amazing week and I love you all!!!!!

Elder Whelan

Weekly Email

We have a baptismal date for Christian. It's so exciting seeing someone recognize God in their life and want to become a member of our Savior's church. I'm grateful I've been able to come here to Brazil and that I was blessed to pick up the language so quickly too. My mom said she found a paper in my closet from when I was a lot younger listing out some things I wanted to accomplish in my life (short and long term goals). I don't remember writing it but I'm not surprised I did. I wrote I wanted to learn Portuguese and used to learn words from my Pops (Dad) who also served in Brazil. She said it was really touching to her that Heavenly Father heard the desires of a boy and gave him his wishes when he chose to serve Him years later as a young man.

        Often we do receive answers to our hopes and desires but sometimes it's years later. It's important for us to communicate and have a relationship with our Father in Heaven that is our own because He really listens and hears our joy, our frustrations, our pleas, and helps turn our righteous desires into blessings for us and for others.

        I don't have much time left to write today. We have to use an Internet cafe and we pay for our time. We were blessed by a member who gave us a gift of time to talk with our parents by paying for our usage at the cafe. We have so many tender mercies daily as Heavenly Father's children. So often we are wrapped up in our lives that we don't recognize those things. But as missionaries who are trying to teach the gospel, we are blessed to see them every day and to recognize them more than we would have before we put on our name tags and committed our lives to Him.

I love my family. I love my Savior. I love the people of Brazil and those people who have loved the heck out of me growing up because they helped get me here. Have an amazing week!

Love, 

Elder Whelan

General Conference

Hi Everyone!

I don't have time to write an email today, but I'll send some pictures from this past week! We had some hard times trying to take some pictures and they all didn't turn out very well, hahaha. We definitely hope you all like them!

I loved general conference.

Happy Birthdays, Grandma Delores and Grandma Barbara!!

-Elder Whelan

5 things....

Hey everyone so I dont have much time here so I'd like to just write about 5 things that happened this week

1. I had my birthday on the 15th! it was on suanday so we couldn't really buy any cake but i was lucky and three members had cake for me haha!!

2. we were able to mark a baptismal date for a boy named Christian! we plan on baptising him next month!

3. transfers happened and me and Saavedra are still here together haha im fine with it because we get along really well!

4. We have been working a lot in the favela (slums) because the more poor people live there and they are really humble and we have a lot more success!!

5. This week we were able to eat a ton of food! haha we always eat a ton of food  but this week I got to eat some really good food.

We had 3 investigators at church, and had the most people in sacrament that they've had in a long time, it was pretty awesome. 

I got a package from mom and pops! But in Brazil, they will tax anything they can so before I could get it shipped to me from Sao Paulo, I had to pay a $50 tax! We have a firepit in our house so I had ice cream the other day and roasted marshmallows. 

That about it for things that happened this week but I hope you all had a better week than I did with lots of awesome experiences I miss you, and I love you all!!!

Love Elder Whelan

Email for the week!

Hey everyone sorry I've been behind on the emails!! first off I want to say happy birthday to Pops back home!! hope you had an amazing birthday and I wish I could have been there to see everything!!! Hope also that everyone whose reading this email is having an amazing week and feeling Gods love for you all!!! this past week went by super quickly for me! we are super close to baptizing a teenager name Christian! And we are having some great success in the area!! Transfers are coming up next week and we´ll see what happens then haha also my birthday is happening in the 15th so I'll probably do nothing because its just another day on the mission and its a Sunday so I've got to respect the day of the Lord haha sounds kinda sad right? but I'm happy! 

My family sent a package for me and it arrived1! thank you family haha love you all so much and whoever is helping with money or emails!! love you all!! 

Soooo what happened this week? I've kinda been getting worse and worse at writing everything down lately which is bad haha but I'm going to get better! But anyways we watched a transmission of President Russel M. Nelson! which was so awesome, and so spiritual! Other than that nothing else has happened in the life of Elder Whelan. But I'm happy though so alls good! 

Hope you all have an amazing week and share your testimony with someone!! Love you all!!!

Love,
Elder Whelan