HOME          OBITUARY          PHOTOS          STORIES          FUNERAL INFO          CONTACT US

Jake's Mission Letters

Here are two letters Jake sent from the mission field that we just ran across. They are posted just as he e-mailed them to us (including typos and information on his dental needs.) We'll try to get some more posted as we find them.

MARCH 23, 2003 LETTER

Hello siblings!
I dont have much time today, but i thought i'd write you all and say hi. Thanks for the emails everyone! (I dont have derek and carlas address so will someone forward it to them - thanks!) I kinda like this email thing, i think ive gotten more letters this week than i have in the last 6 months! Email just seems to be easier. However, i dont know how often i'll be able to check this. It wont be every week. So if you feel inclined, i'll love to hear from you through snail mail too! But i'll check this as often as i can.

Im glad to hear that everyone is doing well. Its good to hear Rachels surgery went well. Doesnt sound fun. Good luck with therapy and recovery, you'll be in my prayers. How was the snowboarding trip?! Jana, im glad to hear all is busy and well. Ive been wondering how you were, thanks for writing! Let me know how things go with Mike! Send pictures! ;) Also, tell Lisa hi for me if you every talk to her. We havent really kept in contact, so i have no clue what shes up to these days. Take care and be good!

Todd and Stephanie and family. Greetings! How is work and kids and all that fun stuff going? Hope everything is ok. I have the all the grandkids pictures in my wallet and i love to brag about them all! Derek and Carla, hows life? Thanks for the Hawaiian Style T-shirt! I wear it quite a bit and everyone loves it! I should start getting some commission on advertising! Alot of the missionaries i know really well are starting to go home to Utah, so hopefully they'll become faithful customers!

As most of you already know, this last week was my 1year mark. Its crazy how time flies. I cant believe its been that long already. It just seems like yesterday i was afraid of talking to people on doorsteps and didnt know what i was doing... (oh wait, that was yesterday!) Its been a good year and this coming year will be even better!

I had a neat opportunity on Saturday to go back to my first area, Spanaway. It was so neat to see everyone again. I grew to really love the ward because i was there for 7 1/2 months. The highlight of the day was to see Bernie. She was someone we taught and baptized when i was there. She is doing so wonderful! She is a single lady from Guam, probably about 30. She is really bubbly and easy going. She has on fire for sharing the gospel since day 1. she would pass out book of mormons like candy to all her friends and people she would meet. Her efforts really paid off on sunday. Some lady she met at a grocery store got baptized. Bernie was so excited about it. She said, "Now i know how you guys feel when someone gets baptized!" She is awesome. It was so rewarding to see how well she is doing. Office work is going ok. We do alot of driving around to diliver stuff and i get to play around with computers all day and type up all kinds of fun reports and charts. Fun times! I had to re-learn how to use a computer though... hehe.

Well, i had better get going. Thank you all for all your love and support! I love you all. Give each other a big hug for me (and give the kids a juicy kiss!)

Love, Elder Whetten

APRIL 7, 2003 LETTER

Hey! It was good to hear from you! I'm glad i decided to come to the library today! i was hoping to get emails from everyone else but you were the only one! I guess everyone is pretty busy with school and work and families!

Life is treating me well here. Had a wonderful conference weekend. We went to the mission home for 3 out of the 4 sessions. Salt Lake just sent us a DVD player and a projector so we rigged up a sheet on the wall and watched with on the large screen with surround sound! It was great. After priesthood session president and sister allen took us to eat out at a buffet resturant. It was alot of fun. Its neat to see the other side of them. We had president laughing so hard he was almost crying! it was great. Sister Allen and i talked alot about Chupi and Juarez and all that fun stuff. I can just see her and aunty Cyn being best friends growing up! They are very similar. I dont think sister ALlen ever lived in Chupi though... oh well.

I hope you enjoyed elder ballards talk about member missionary work! I remember those days when the sister missionaries came over and tried to commit us to set a date to have someone for them to teach. I was so afraid. Now im the one sitting on the other couch asking them to ask their friends and neighbors! Elder ballard had some good insights about how to approah it. I dont know if you noticed, but there were a few referrences to the Tacoma mission! President Stone, the last mission president here got called to be an area authority 70. He was an assistant to Elder Ballard prior to being called. Also, Elder ballard made mention of a ward in Washinton that baptized 46 people last year. Its the Centralia Ward in the southern part of the mission. It was cool to have that hit home so close!

After confernce yesterday Don Harding was baptized. Its so crazy how we met him and its neat to see how the gospel has changed his life. Its amazing to see the blessings it brings. Now we're just waiting on his mom to fully recover so she can get baptized as well!

Office work is going good. I had somewhat of a stressful week this week. On tuesday afternoon i went to upgrade MOS, the database program that has all the information on all the missionaries and all the finance information for the mission. I installed the new version and went to run it and it was completely EMPTY! All the information was lost! I called Salt Lake to see if they could help but they had just left for the day. We werent at the office for the next 2 days because we were at the temple, so we basically had a useless mission office for a few days! On friday morning i spent a large portion of the morning on the phone with salt lake figuring everything out and finally we got all the information back (thank goodness!). I was so stressed over that!

Saturday night we realized that the baptismal records were all due on sunday so we stayed up till 2 am typing them all into the computers. Just as we were about to leave the office i realized it was daylight savings time, so we lost an extra hour of sleep! So we only got 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Needless to say, it was a struggle to stay awake! I only slept through one speaker. (and inbetween sessions!)

Wednesday and Thursday was the temple trip. It was hectic but well worth it. I enjoyed the spiritual boost it provided, as i was getting very worn out and not being able to teach and study much, i needed it!

Other than that, i dont know how much excitment has gone on?? Today playing basketball there was an Ottley there. He said his sister is Kahi and his brother is Michael? (who is just about done with his mission in the Phillipines). It was cool talking to him.

Well, i guess i've runed out of things to say. Have fun with school and grades and work and the house and yard and everything else! It will be nice to come home to a finished house and a beautiful yard! And i'll even mow it every now and again for ya!

oh, by the way, i dont know if i told you or not, but i';ll probably be needing to go to the dentist this week. Remember my whole saga with my front tooth needing the root canal? Well, the little plug they put in the hole fell out and i now have a hole in the back of my tooth. Its nothing major, its already a dead tooth so there is no sensitivity or anything, but its probably best that i get it taken care of asap. I dont know how insurance will work. There is a dentist who is a member who may or maynot do it for free. Will either of your insurances cover it if he doesnt? If so, if you could fax any info i might need over, that would be great. The fax # is (253)565-0170. Just put my name on it and it will get to me...

I think thats about it. Thanks so much for everything!

Love ya!

Elder Whetten

p.s. go ahead and give grandma this address. I'm about 4 letters behind in getting back to her, and i dont have much time for letter writing, so i'll probably just email her. Thanks! Love ya!