Dear family and everyone else,
     Christmas has come, and now it has gone again until next year; however, next year will be extra special, because this time, I will be able to celebrate it with all my family. It was fun skyping, and having dinner with the Renshaw's last night. I want to apologize now! We had to leave early this morning to go E-mail at 10:00 so I forgot the camera again. There are a ton of pictures this week. Maybe I can bring my camera again later on today after we shop and clean our apartment, along with playing games at the church. I guess I will have to see soon. I got a ton of presents this year. I did get a suit this year. A really nice and fancy inside too. I want to thank you, and all my family that have supported me on my mission. Soon, I will be able to hug, shake hands, and catch up with you all again. When I got on the computer, I noticed on my portal that "My Plan" is already available for me to use and start doing. I have been very excited to do this. Most missionaries, maybe 90%, don't like doing it for some reason. Yes, it's long. Believe me.  I sent home 2 missionaries, besides my trainer, since he left before this launched. It takes a long time for sure to complete. I noticed in myself that I like the word plan more than goal. Goals sound hard, but plans sound fun. I just have to trick my mind in thinking plan so it sounds like a fun activity to do. No work should ever be drudgery. That is why I stay enthused about the work I do even though I am coming to a close on my mission.
     The Mission Devotional was fun. We were able to take a mission picture to send to the brethren in Salt Lake City. Soon I will get a copy and send it all to you. I'm excited to see that picture. I bet it looks just as good, if not better than last year's picture. The food was also good. We had huge cinnamon rolls, and colored popcorn that Elder Guernsey made and brought. Christmas morning, I also ate the Trifle that I decided to make at the Zone Leaders apartment. It was overall really good and fun to layer and make. I have a ton of left overs, so I will be eating this stuff throughout this week and New Year's. The Palmer's also gave us a little booklet of pictures that the mission went through this year. I wasn't in it though, but it was short and condensed, and incomplete.
     We taught James for the last time this week. He wasn't ready to change and repent either. He created the analogy that he's too old and has already found his "Highway 99" to heaven. We must remember that we should not be stagnant in our progress in the Lord.  Even on a highway. we have choices to make. We can change lanes, get ahead of someone, stay behind, or take exits to other freeways or to different roads. The Lord's road is small, not widely known as an interstate that we all often know. We must study our spiritual road maps, course corrections, and pray that we know the best route to take to get home in Heaven. We have spiritual Liahona's/G.P.S.'s at our ready, known as scriptures, that give us our road map. Our road should also be solid instead of broken, weak, and fragmented. As Helaman 5:12 states: "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." I know that if we are rooted deep within the rock of Christ, church wide revelation, and personal revelation, we will know what to do in the long run to make the trip to the end. That's about it.  Love you all.
Sincerely,
Elder White
                                                                    Christmas Pajamas!

                                 Christmas breakfast with Elder Sitani and Elder Booth
                                                Christmas dinner with the Renshaws

                                                                  Christmas stuff!

Dear family and everyone else,
     MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL!!! It's been an interesting week for me for sure. Elder Ashcraft and I decided to drop Guillermo and our other investigator whom we have never met. Guillermo just wasn't in the right heart with the right desire to accept the fulness of the gospel and apply the principles that were taught to him. Twice he was drunk while we went over to a teaching appointment with him. One cannot feel the influence of the Holy Ghost under such conditions. It was a scary experience. We will never go back to him while I'm here-- that's for sure, but he did say that he wanted to be baptized. Now is just not a good time for him. The other investigator picked up a 2nd job, and it became impossible to meet with her, so we turned her over to the Lord for further preparation.
     The good news is that we have picked up a guy named James. He is an Assyrian. General to Jordan, Israel, and Iraq area. Most Assyrians in Turlock are Christians. Some are refugees, but not James. He's lived here for many years. We read from Mosiah 2 with him to answer one of his questions as to why we have to fight in general. We answered by saying that we must listen to the Holy Spirit to tell us things that we must do right and not listen to the devil's temptations. We wanted to stay longer for our appointment, but we had to meet up with the sisters later that night.
     We also came to find out that Sister Pietz was leaving to go somewhere else in the mission. Emergency transfer. Sister Miller heard the next day that she will be leaving for Oakdale again, so we no longer have the sisters in our ward. Elder Ashcraft and I will be alone in the mighty work here in the newly formed Turlock 1st ward. Nothing seems to want to be alright around here. There is something changing, something in commotion. As of right now, there are 5 English Wards, and 3 Spanish Branch's in the Turlock Stake. This stake is getting spread thin. I hope they and we missionaries can help build up the church again. Let us all spiritually convert others to the gospel and help our spiritual brothers and sisters become members of the restored church through baptism and confirmation.
     Thursday, we will be having a Mission Christmas Devotional and sharing our talents or just sing together. Hopefully I will see my Christmas package then. They will also be hosting Christmas breakfast for all of us at the Mission Office. We will also be having a new mission picture, so hopefully I will get that email, and then send it to you for my final time with the whole mission before I come home. It's been such a wonderful experience serving here in the Central Valley of California. There are so many things that I want to share when I get home during my homecoming talk and report how well I have been in serving the Lord. May the lord bless you all back at home, and me as we are in the service of our fellow beings this Christmas season.
Sincerely with love to all and to all,
Elder White
 
See's Candy!

New Turlock 1st Ward

Dear family and everyone else,
     We will be having Christmas dinner with the Renshaw's, so we should be able to skype over there that evening. Details of when will come later as the week approaches,  next Monday hopefully. Also, they have been able to put together most of the ward council now. We haven't had a single meeting with a ward council yet for the last 3 weeks we have been here. Not much is going on in missionary work anyway to report anything to ward council, except for a few members that need the sacrament regularly but have nobody to bring it to them. It also looks like church for this ward will be permanently at 9:00 just like Crows Landing, which stinks because it's hard for non-members to come that early because it takes time to get up early to get ready. Also, it's hard to get to ward council at 7:15 in the morning when you can't get up before 6:30. That's no time to shower, and have breakfast in time, but such is life. It was never easy for Christ in anything he did, but he did it because he loved his Father in Heaven.
     Tuesday night, we were able to go on an exchange with the Crows Landing Spanish Elders. I went with Elder Rivera to Crows Landing, and I was able to drive the car again. It felt good to drive and listen to my personal music on my flash drive. Elder Rivera loved it. It's weird going on a Spanish exchange though. I don't know Spanish at all. Luckily, I wasn't called to Spanish work, or else I would have suffered for a long time for sure. We on Wednesday were able to cook with the Catholics again and hand out food to the homeless. That has always been a fun experience. I got to say hi to Nancy again. She still looks like how I left her over a year ago.
     Last night, we were also able to watch the Stake musical called, "A Savior is Born". There was a children't choir, Stake choir, and even a screen to watch the Christmas Initiative as the orchestra played their music. It was probably the best production I have seen a stake do to honor and worship our lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  It made my heart burn within me each time a very powerful song came on. I even got hot flares from all the excitement. As Luke 24:32 states, "And they said one to another, did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?" This week's daily initiative states, "Jesus taught others, and so can you. Jesus showed humility, and so can you. Jesus taught us to cloth the naked. Jesus worshiped through song, and so can you. He showed us compassion. Jesus cared for his mother, and so can you. Lastly, Jesus honored the Sabbath, and so can you. I hope you are all keeping up with the daily videos and doing your best to show how much you love Jesus Christ by doing what he did this Christmas season/month.
That's about it for this week. Sorry I don't have much to say about missionary work. Things are just slow. Love you all.
Sincerely,
Elder White
                                                         Elder Rivera and Elder White

                                                                      District Meeting
                                                      Santa even worships Jesus Christ

Dear family and everyone else,
     Sorry for not telling you where my companion is from. I thought I did.  Elder Ashcraft is from Rexburg, Idaho. He's been out for exactly 1 year now on December 2nd. I also had Thanksgiving dinner with the John's. It was a good dinner. Right after we left, the Spanish Sisters came, because they didn't have a place, so the John's reheated the food for them when they got there. They made tons of food for a bunch of missionaries. The poor Spanish missionaries just didn't have a place because all of the Spanish people went back to Mexico or other places to visit their families.
     Yesterday, our ward got the news that we will be combining with Turlock 2nd Ward to make the Turlock 1st Ward, so now our boundary is huge having 2 areas made into one. It covers East Turlock, Delhi, Denair, and Hilmar, but I think we will still be maintaining our missionary areas just to keep things simple. We will just share the members now. Just when things were getting normal again for me, and chaos strikes again. The congregation was pretty big, but each individual ward is really small. I felt like I was at home again with huge wards. No more small stuff. We need big again. It was approved by the First Presidency. The bishopric is also already set up by the First Presidency. They have been in deep council of who will be in the new ward council now. We are doing our best to not get in over our heads.
     This week, we have been able to continue teaching Guillermo. We read Enos together about prayer, and a little bit about faith. He liked the story a lot and tried his best  to apply it to himself as he thinks about himself praying to God. He has a thing against me though. I don't know what it is. He likes to tease and have fun. I slide with it. Whatever. It's better to laugh with him then feel offended. It's just not worth it, but he's cool. I learn more about Mexican culture as  Elder Ashcraft and I continue to work with him and help him progress to his desired baptism. It's interesting to note that those people like to get to know the missionaries/people in general before you talk more or share a message about the gospel with them.
     On Saturday, we were able to witness a Christmas parade in downtown Turlock. This was a missionaries contacting dream. I haven't seen a huge crowd like that since Memorial Day back in Manteca, but this time was even more people. We street contacted and gave a bunch of the "Light The World" cards to everyone as they celebrate Christmas. Not sure how many people try to view the video. Today, I found one of our cards on the street all folded and torn apart. I said to myself, what a waste. It didn't even make it to that person's home who received it. We mustn't be too quick to judge. We should at least experiment upon any good word someone would want to share with us.  That's about it for this week. Love you all.
Sincerely,
Elder White
 
                                              Tyler at the downtown Turlock parade