Christmas Devotional and Deliveries For Day

Hello to all! Merry Christmas!

This past week has been crazy with all the mail that is coming into
the office and the Christmas devotional and setting up for that
meeting. There has been tons that has been going on. Thursday we had
to take up a lot of tables to Ossining and it was difficult because we
took the seats out of our big Van.

Friday we had the Christmas devotional for our entire mission so we
got up at 5 and went to Ossining to unload all the mail and to
transport a lot of people from a train station to the Ossining Chapel.
It was a pain to do and it took 4 loads of about 15 minute each way so
overall about 30 minutes. Give or take.. But yeah it was crazy. The
devotional was super good and the music was super good and the spirit
was there. It was a good meeting and definitely a good break from the
craziness of an office elder. After the meeting we had to transport
people again but this time we got to get some of the upstate
missionaries to take them. It was still 2 loads of as many
missionaries as we could fit in our van. We had to take down all the
tables that go back to Scarsdale and it was hectic but fun, we didn't
get much missionary work done because of the Christmas devotional and
having to do other stuff that took priority. I don't even know what
exactly happened but it was great.

Saturday we did the city deliveries which went very well.. It was
elder beardalls first delivery in the city and he did very well.
Traffic was super fast and we got to where we needed to go quickly. We
did some service for our landlady, we brought all her cans and bottles
to Costco to recycle them. Then we had dinner with this family called
the Sena family and Cena in Spanish is Dinner so that's pretty funny.
Then after we practice with the missionaries in our ward so we could
sound good while singing on Sunday. It was good and we sounded super
good!

Sunday was awesome, we got our studies in for the first time in about
a week. We went to church and sang for the prelude music and no one
even listened, they got louder but eventually bishop told us to go sit
down and they started sacrament meeting. One of the members in our
ward got his mission call to the Philadelphia Pennsylvania mission, so
that was awesome. We had a dinner and we had a ham dinner... A pre
Christmas dinner! We had to help transport the singers from the
Scarsdale station to the Scarsdale chapel and we had to help with the
concert for all the members around here. It was so fun! We got home
pretty late, well like 9:45 but that's pretty late for us
missionaries.

Monday we had district meeting but we had to leave a little early so
we could do the upstate mail route. It was a long day but we finished
the night by going to presidents house to pick up a ton of boxes from
them that go to the city. It was a lot of fun! While we were doing our
upstate route we stopped to get Chick-Fil-A! The first time that I've
had it in along time. Since I was in Newtown.

Tuesday we spent the day in the city.. The Whole day. Literally
driving through bad traffic and it took so long. It was super crazy
and super boring just chilling in the back seat because we're in a
trio. We drove all over the city to so various tasks and to deliver
mail and all that crazy stuff. It's been crazy busy and tomorrow we
are starting our mail delivery at 6 am because we have to go to the
city and then do upstate as well, then make it back for a Christmas
Eve dinner. Yeah it's crazy.

I know that Christmas time is a time to remember our savior Jesus
Christ, it's not just a time to receive gifts but it's much more than
that. It's a time for us to remember Jesus Christ and everything he
has done for each and every one of us. His atonement is for all of us,
we can be forgiven of our sins and be made I clean. I know this is
Christ's church.

Merry Christmas!

Deliveries and Much More

Hello to all people, 

This week has been way crazy and there is only
more craziness to come.

Friday was busy because we did the entire city delivery and the
upstate delivery. I drove the entire time.. We literally drove for 12
hours plus and by we I mean I. Luckily our city route was easier
because we dropped off all of Chinatowns mail at the Harlem Chapel,
and we dropped off all of south manhattans mail off at the temple and
the 87th street chapel. It's super crazy but we got back to the
mission office in good time to get all of upstate in the the van and
to start our route to Ossining, then to Newburgh, then to Poughkeepsie
and last but not least Stamford, but we really went to the new Canaan
chapel. It was crazy but we then had to go to Ossining to get some
bedding that was left from transfers, then to the mission office to
pick up a phone we had to bring to Olmstead, then we got to Olmstead
at 9, dropped it off and got back home at 9:25. It was fun. Driving in
the city in the dark! It was fantastic.

Saturday we helped with some service. We continued to paint this house
that we didn't finish last time. We only had about an hour and then we
had to quickly change and go to the mission office to pick up the mail
because no one would be there to pick it up. We had an APF with hot
chocolate and sharing the video a savior is born and a world without a
savior. We had a good time. We helped set up for the ward Christmas
party which was a lot of fun.. Yummy food for sure. We also helped
clean up and they gave us a ton of the left over food. No one else
wanted it, not even the APs, so we had this genius idea to drop it off
to the APs when they were walking home.. So that's exactly what we
did. We drove over and we left it on their counter and took the stairs
down from the 25th floor. It was the greatest prank ever.

Sunday we had a great sacrament meeting. All the youth spoke about
Christmas time. The spirit was way strong. Church was good though.
After church we headed home and ate, then did our companion study and
our weekly planning. Then we went to one of our members, brother
Jenson and he's the 1st counselor in the bishopric and we had this
genius idea to carol to him. So we did that and sang the first Noel,
and silent night. He had a genius idea to have all us missionaries in
our ward sing before church started to get people to stay reverent and
help them sit down early. He told us that we look good with tire
tracks on us, because we threw ourselves under the bus. Brother Jenson
is the coolest and he is so funny. He loves us missionaries and he is
definitely a great member. We looked up a referral afterwards named
Dan. He asked for a bible and we went to his door and knocked. He
answered and he was so excited! He did a fist bump in the air for it.
We talked about the Book of Mormon and he is interested in learning
more. The thought came to mind afterwards that he will be baptized.
Maybe sooner than later. I love that! The spirit was strong.

Monday we had staff meeting again, and we were told all the meetings
we will need to help with. There is a ton of stuff we will be doing
this week and next week. I'm excited. We had district meeting about
the inspired teaching pattern and how we can be better missionaries.
It was super awesome. Afterwards we got some Chinese food which was
delicious. Elder Burton and Beardall had to get certified to drive the
big ford Van. So 2 and a half hours later they finally finished and we
went to fill orders. We went to our investigators house and help them
decorate their Christmas tree. They also fed us some summer sausage
and crackers and cheese, fancy cheese. I really want to go buy one of
those huge summer sausages. I think I may, we have Costco. Haha.

Tuesday we did city deliveries again! And had interviews with
President.. It's pretty sweet. We went to the office to grab some
things, and drop some things off. We went to see our investigator
Ayden.. He is definitely hard to teach but elder Burton had the
glorious idea to introduce him to to Studio C. Ayden always tries to
show us videos and we thought it would be good for him to be
influenced that way. He will one day be ready,

I'm so grateful for this gospel. I know that Jesus Christ lives and
that through him we can all be happy. I know that he was born and
that's why we celebrate Christmas. I hope everyone has a great week
and I'll talk to you next Wednesday! 

1. Elder Dutson and I with mail
2. Mail for the city in our van.
3. Quote from the polar express.
4. The mail room.
5. Christmas tree picture.
6. City deliveries.

Merry Christmas!

JFK Airport and Transfers

Dad,
Everything has been going great just a bit stressful with transfers.
The weather here is just so amazing lately and it's getting warmer.. I
feel like we will get hit pretty hard here in the next month or so.
I'm glad that California is finally getting rain, I will keep that in
my prayers for California to get some moisture.

We have no snow at all, we were upstate and we saw acouple flakes
falling but then it stopped. It's crazy to think that a year ago I was
in Harlem, just so mind blowing!

It's such a joy to be able to see the entire mission and to serve
everyone in it. We will be way busy, the deliver guy said last year in
one day we got 125 packages.. Yikes. I did get the package from you!
Thanks for the meat and popcorn and everything you sent! I love it. By
the way.. I'm in a trio now with Elder Burton and Elder Beardall. If
you are sending stuff for my companions, then now there needs to be 3
instead of 2. We will be able to skype, I should know what time to do
that next week or so. We will let you know! Christmas is a time of
year where you can be homesick but the best way to combat that is to
just work. I love this time of year and I love everyone from our ward
and the ward where I'm serving. President wants missionaries out
sharing the a savior is born video to as many people as possible. He
doesn't want us tracting but he wants us to street contact to people.
I hope brandi will have a fun time at college, it's a fun experience!
We have been finding quite a bit and seeing some success from it. We
have been trying to share the video with as many people as possible.
And something you all could do is share that video on Facebook to help
flood the earth with goodness. Text, email or Facebook message someone
that comes to mind to let them know you thought of them. Let the
spirit guide. Watch all the videos on that website. Especially a world
without a savior. We are supposed to be familiar with the website so
we can share it with others! I'll get to my weekly email now

Love,
Elder Casper

Hello to all,
This week has been totally crazy and long. There has
been a lot that has been happy. First of all transfer calls came and
Elder Dutson was transferred to Danbury and I got 2 new companions.
Elder Burton and Elder Beardall (who is a Portuguese elder). Yep I am
now in a trio! I'm so excited! I've always wanted to be in a trio.
Elder Burton is from Holladay Utah, and Elder Beardall is from Fort
Collins Colorado. Yay!

Thursday we had MLC. We were talking about how to gain a testimony of
the Book of Mormon and one of the missionaries said "If we had the
plates we could show people them and they would come to know that it
is true by the facts, but they wouldn't have motivation to act on the
message." That is totally true. After we were done with the MLC we
took a dry run to JFK, and luckily we did because that came in handy.
It's super easy to get down to JFK, you literally follow signs to get
down there and we pulled in a terminal. From the Whitestone bridge we
have the best view of the city hands down. So technically the south
mission has a sweet view of our city.

Friday there was train the trainers and I loved the spirit I could
feel at that meeting. Elder Dutson got asked to train while we were at
that meeting. We drove to Kingston to deliver a couch. Kingston is the
very top of our mission, so about an hour and 40 minutes. Then we
delivered a mattress to the zone leaders in Newburgh which is an hour
away from Kingston. And we then came home at about 8 and did our
weekly planning.

Saturday we did our studies and then had a conference call with a
President. We were doing our weekly planning we get a call from
President. He asks us what we were doing, we tell him weekly planning.
He responds with "perfect, meet me at the office asap". He wanted us
to take his master key to the kingsbridge chapel. We started driving
and then we find out we don't need to be there. That was fun. We then
offer some service to this member who is moving to the Bronx, and we
helped paint her house. I'm grateful for the experience I have
painting. I'm grateful for dad in teaching me how to paint and do
these things. It honestly brought me back to home life a bit. I love
offering that service! It was way fun! We also have some more service
opportunities our way! The members mom said she used to feed the
missionaries every Wednesday and we used to help her set up for
Christmas. We taught our investigator Bob and we shared the new
Christmas video A savior is born and he really really enjoyed it. He
actually read the Book of Mormon too! That made me jump for joy
inside! I was so happy at that point.

Sunday we had church which was great and I felt the spirit so much.
The testimonies that were shared were heartfelt and I enjoyed it. We
went to the Roddys for dinner for Thanksgiving round 2! It was way
sweet. After the Roddys we went to a less active sister in our ward
with the other elders. We shared the Christmas initiative video with
her. She gave us a couple of her friends who could use the gospel in
their lives. It was just straight up sweet.

Monday was zone meeting and I learned a lot. It was about obedience,
planning, what lack I yet?, consecration. Something that was said
about planning really hit me. Failure to plan is planning to fail. It
was a super spiritual meeting. We saw Bob as well and showed him the
video "A world without a savior" and we talked to him about reading
the Book of Mormon and he says he will. He says it all the time. Bob
needs this in his life, we promised him blessings. We saw Ayden as
well.

Tuesday we picked up the new missionaries from the Westchester county
airport! It's cool to see all the new missionaries and to really think
about where I was a year ago. They have such powerful testimonies and
they are excited to be here. We didn't get home till 11 haha.

Wednesday there was transfers. We took all the elders from the
Halstead in New Rochelle to the mission home. We took missionaries
from there to the Inwood chapel, then from Inwood we took them to
Ossining, and we then took missionaries from Ossining back down to
Inwood. I picked up both my new companions at transfers, one in Inwood
and the other in Ossining. President shared a video from
Christmas.mormon.org about Lindsey Stirling, check that video out! We
went back to the mission home and chilled with all the departing
missionaries for the rest of the night and heard their testimonies.
They have strong testimonies of the gospel and that's what I want to
have by the end. I can't wait. Afterwards we found out that we will be
driving missionaries to JFK early in the morning. Haha

Thursday we woke up at 5, and picked the returning missionaries up and
brought them to the mission home, we packed a truck and the back of
our big Van with luggage, I drove the big Van and one of the APs
(Elder Jimenez) drove the truck with one of my companions. Both the
APs didn't know how to get to JFK so last night I emailed them
directions. So elder Jimenez followed me close to JFK and it worked
out perfectly. They all followed me home to the mission home. It was
awesome and it was fun. I love driving down there. I passed through
Jamaica queens on the I-684. I'm grateful to be an office elder and to
serve around the Assistants. They are in our ward too, they come to
dinners with us too. It's a fun opportunity. Also one of the sister
missionaries parents came to the mission home while we were there. She
hugged her family for the first time in 18 months. I've had a great
opportunity to serve around her and it's sad to see them go but it
happens. My life has been impacted for the good for this sister
missionaries testimony and her hard work and determination. I love
this gospel so much, my testimony has been strengthened so much!

Everyone, at this very moment go to christmas.mormon.org and watch the
videos. Share these videos. There is no better way to share the spirit
of Christmas than sharing a video about the birth of our savior Jesus
Christ. Spread this message with the world. Pray about how to use the
website this holiday season. Let the holy spirit guide.

I love you all! Talk to you next Wednesday!

Thanksgiving and a Baptism

Hello everyone! This week has been super excited and thanksgiving was
super legit. There Is a lot to talk about so I'll get to that now. A
year ago was my first full day in The New York New York north mission,
I was in Harlem.

Thursday morning we got up and went to ihop with the zone leaders
because we can. It was a fun experience and it was weird think that it
was my second thanksgiving in the mission. We went to the church at
about 8:00 to help set up for this inner religious council of new
Rochelle. We were able to get all the chairs, and the tables and food
ready for it. The council happens every year on thanksgiving and
alternates at local church's and our bishop volunteered to host the
event this year. An episcopalian priest named Father Martin Smith from
Washington D.C talked about sacred gratitude. How we should always be
grateful and not just this time of the year, but how we should be
grateful and give thanks all the time. It was a super weird
experience, some of the sister missionaries walked around with baskets
to collect the offerings. I'm grateful that our church isn't run that
way because it's pretty awkward to see money in baskets. It was a good
program though! We did our studies afterwards and then had dinner at
the Flemings, and there was turkey, stuffing, green beans with BACON,
mashed potatoes and delicious home made rolls. You always start with a
big plate and then after you eat that plate, you then take it in
portions. I was full rather fast. There was Apple pomegranate
Martinelli's and elder Dutson and I drank a ton of that. Then the pie
came out, 4 different types of pie to be exact. Apple, pecan, cherry
and pumpkin cheesecake! We all started with two and I was seriously
having a hard time eating them. It didn't help that we were cracking
up laughing at what we were all saying. It to the point where we were
saying random things. Elder Leisham said Pumpkins are cow eggs, and
then Elder Gore looked at him with the most confused look.. We were
saying random things.. That's what Martinelli's does for you... Makes
you crazy hyper! That's what we did, by the time we got home we passed
out in a food coma.

Friday we had a huge meeting with president Smith with all the
district leaders and their companions. He told us that if any of the
district leaders struggled with anything in the white handbook, then
we should go talk to him because he will release us. But he also said
that we don't have to be perfect, we just need to strive to be
obedient. After that meeting we did the upstate deliveries and our
landlady Maria invited us over to her pizza shop to eat for an after
thanksgiving dinner. It's called Saccones pizza and it's super good.
We get free pizza and half the time she will bring some pasta out for
us which is to die for! I'll take you guys there one day. We looked up
one of our potentials and we told him who we were and he shut the door
immediately and walked away. That was our answer. We ended up calling
people for the rest of the night at the church until our zone leaders
met us there so we could split. Elder Burrell came to my area, this is
the 3rd time he's been on a split with me here in the Westchester
zone.

Saturday was way legit. We went to teach an investigator named Nathan,
elder Burrell refound him. When we walked in he was taking a smoking
break in his house so for a good 5 minutes we were breathing in smoke
and talking to him. He is a little slower at learning but he wants to
know the truth. At one point he had a bap date. It was a super
spiritual lesson and we answered questions he had and offered a simple
powerful testimony. Then we went to go see Bob and we read Alma 40 and
helped him understand the spirit world and the resurrection. Elder
Burrell and I felt super good about that lesson. We looked up a ton of
other people and no one was home. We went to a baptism of this lady
named Gladys Amarilla who was found by Elder Burrell and I. On our
last split we found her and elder Burrell taught her the entire
restoration I Spanish. Yeah she got baptized! It was a way spiritual
baptism and I'm so grateful that the spirit guided us to her so that
she could accept the truth and be baptized. If we didn't tract that
night in September then she wouldn't of been found then and wouldn't
have gotten baptized. It's such a testimony builder to me and now I
know that I was sent in this area to help bring her back to our
Heavenly Father.

Sunday we had a wonderful time at church, none of our investigators
came  but we still learned a lot about tithing and how we can see
blessings as we pay our tithing and sacrifice our money. The lord says
"prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open
you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there
shall not be room enough to receive it." And I love that scripture. He
tells us to test him and he will give us so many blessings that we
won't have room to receive them all. Anyways we had a dinner with the
Jensons but we got stuck in traffic for more than 30 minutes because
there was a terrible crash. 3 lanes of traffic merged into 1 so we
were 40 minutes late to our appointment with them. But they love the
missionaries. We got some marriage advice from sister Jenson. It's a
lot of good advice for the future, I'll be able to implement that in
my life in the future.

Monday we had a cool district meeting about asking inspired questions
and we were able to ask inspired questions later on with Bob. We got
to fill our orders but we were supposed to have a lesson in Yonkers
with the elders over there who are passing off this guy who is solid
and has a baptismal date already! That lesson fell through but I was
so excited to teach him. I got my flu shot, we dropped off some
packages that sister smith wanted us to drop off for her. We then went
and helped with some service at this lady's house in our ward. We just
carried big heavy things down the stairs and out in the trash. It took
20 minutes for us to do that for her, then we headed to smashburger
because Bishop was feeding us there. The burgers are pretty good! I
like In-N-Out better though haha. We had a super good time with them!
Elder Dutson and I froze our hands off sticking them out the window as
we drove, just 1 hand of course because I was driving. Anyways it was
a lot fun!

Tuesday we were supposed to deliver mail with our van but the APs
called us and told us they need our van and we can drive their truck.
We can't deliver mail in their truck so we got the big van and drove
that on down to the city to deliver the mail. That was fun, one thing
I've realized is that I can cut off anyone with that huge of a van. No
one dare try to cut me off either. It was fun and we always say the
most random things.. But it's always fun. We have a problem with mice
in our apartment.. We have so much bait out and they are eating those
things like they are candy. I was standing in our study room and then
I hear the bait being moved, I go to look at the bait and I see a
little mouse run behind a chair and it's gone. We spent some time on
that because we need to live in a clean environment. Stupid mice. We
taught our 12 year old investigator.. It's hard to teach him because
he has so many distractions. He doesn't focus well but we talked a lot
about prayer and about God. It was a very good discussion. It's
getting colder here but it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

On Sunday the church released a new Christmas Video, it's called A
Savior is Born! You can view it at christmas.mormon.org
Seriously spend the time to go check out the website and video. The
spirit hits so strong and I know that Jesus Christ suffered for all my
pains and trails that I go through. I know that through him I can be
cleansed of all sins and all guilt. I know Jesus Christ lives. I love
you all! Have a great week!

1. All of us at IHOP
2. Elder Dutson and I, the banana completes the photo.
3. Elder Burrell, Gladys and I! I can't believe she is baptized!

Elder Casper

Diversity Breakfast, Upstate Devliveries, and Happy Thanksgiving

Hello to all who like bacon, and if you don't like bacon then sorry...

This week has been killer, lately time has been just a big blob of
random things we've done so I'll try my best to recount stuff that
happened.

Last Wednesday we went up to elder Dutsons and mine old area, Newtown
for Pday and we went and saw Johnny. I hope you remember Johnny! He is
so awesome and we had so much fun! He took us to a Buffet and we
filled ourselves up and it was fun seeing him again. I've had so many
fun times hanging with Johnny and I'm so grateful for him and all that
he's done for me.

Thursday we had this diversity breakfast at the Manhattanville college
in Purchase NY, and is a big event that they have been holding since
September 11, 2001 and it's where a bunch of different religious
groups get together and we talk about how we can be more respectful to
one another. All the missionaries in our zone where there and we had
president come and senior couples. There was a member of our church at
about every table there. Also our area 70 over here came and talked
too. They mentioned Palmyra as well and it was definitely a great time
to help people know more about our church. One of the speakers there
introduced Elder Gordon Smith as a member of our church and talked
about how it's a non paid service. When elder smith spoke he told
everyone that it was paid in blessings and he loves it. I could feel
the spirit as he talked about it. We then came back to the mission
office and cleaned the place where we have all the materials, we call
it the Batcave, like in batman. Haha but we organized all of our side
and now we have all the materials organized and it makes filling
orders on Mondays so nice. It's a service for everyone who will be
office elders in the past, they won't even know how bad it was. We
went to Buffalo Wild Wings and I went all out and got 30 wings, which
lasted me 3 meals. On Thursday they have cheaper boneless wings for
about 60 cents a wing but I absolutely love Buffalo Wild Wings! We
went with the zone leaders and it was so fun. Then we finished
cleaning the Batcave. That night we made a lot of progress with our 12
year old investigator. He wants to come to church and we told him
there are a lot of people his age and that he would really love it.
Hopefully we can get his mom to come with him.

Friday we did upstate deliveries! It depends on what day we do them
and the time. We start at the Yorktown building which takes 30 minutes
from the mission office, then to Middletown which takes 80 minutes
from Yorktown. We then go to the Poughkeepsie chapel which takes
another 80 minutes and then to the Stamford ZLs which takes another
hour, and then it takes a little over an hour to get home.. Minus the
traffic and of course there was traffic. We weekly planned and then
had a sweet dinner!

Saturday we started the day by taking all the stuff in our apartment
that we don't need to the mission storage units to get them out of our
apartment. We then spent acouple hours in mount Vernon doing some
finding and it was a killer day. We found a guy named Marlon who is
interested in our church because he knows someone from our church. It
was so epic. We went to port Chester and looked up this guy named
Ralph who was tracted into by the ZLs. We talked with him and he says
two girls have been coming for weeks and it turns out that the Spanish
sisters tracted into him another time and gave him to the sisters. The
office elders in this area never did anything. They would never look
up people or anything.. They just chose to do office stuff instead. I
don't know though I wasn't here. That's what I've heard. We ate and
then went to the Portchester Costco because I need a warmer jacket so
I got a $20 nice and warm jacket. We went and did some finding and
then the night was over. We came back to the church because we park
our car there and walk home. We went in the church and the Spanish
Ward was having a fiesta so they invited us to eat there. So that
happened!

Sunday church was really good. It was the primary program and its
always so funny to see the kids screaming as they sing.. It was so
good. Second hour we went into the YSA class and it's all girls and
one other dude and the teacher who is a dude as well. It was pretty
awkward for us, we didn't even say anything.. We just listened.
Anyways priesthood was also good. Then the rest of the night we just
did look ups but we brought some cookies we made to our land lady at
her pizza shop, we love her so much... She is very awesome. We made
cookies for our entire district. Yeah. We didn't see much success
throughout the day but we know people are being prepared to meet us.

Monday we had the staff meeting again and we got to hear what's going
on in the mission, then to district meeting and we talked about the
new initiative called "A savior is born" and we talked about how we
can share this with everyone. We brainstormed a lot and we came up
with some Schweet ideas! We went and filled orders and then helped
Maria with some service. We brought all her cans and bottles from the
pizza shop to Costco to recycle them. We bring the little receipts to
her and she always gives us free stuff.. We got some pizza before we
started and then some Zeppolees. Which are bread sticks covered in
powdered sugar.. Who would of thought that covering bread in sugar
would be good. We had a dinner at the Snarr family and we talked about
3 Nephi 11 and how it took the people 3 times to notice the sound all
the way and focus on it. We talked about how we need to be in tune
with the spirit. It was so killer!

Tuesday we did mail delivery routes but it took us from 11-5 because
of the stupid traffic and it was just crazy! You just cut off so many
people... It's so fun but messed up as well. Because when someone cuts
me off I get pissed but yet I do it to other people.. Haha. Anyways
that's how you have to drive in the city. We came back and went to
clean the stairs in our apartment for Maria and then went to her pizza
shop and she had us deliver 3 pizzas right around the corner so we did
that and she brought us out this huge plate with Pasta and chicken
parm. It was so freaking good! Probably the best I've ever had. So
freaking good! We did a look up and then we talked to this guy named
Abdul who was interested in our message. He is interested in Science
but he wants to know what we believe and what Christianity believes.
That was just way killer.

Today we are on a temporary split, I'm with elder Burrell and we went
out on a hunt for Mountain Dew game fuels and we were walking there
and found some so we got them then on the way back we ran into one of
our investigators named Nathan and set up an appointment with him. We
haven't been able to get in contact with him.. He has fallen off the
face of the planet but now we got him! The spirit led us to him. That
was meant to happen. It was way dope.. It strengthened my testimony
for sure! I know this church is true and I know that the gospel has
been restored to the earth and the power to do those saving
ordinances. I love you all and Happy Thanksgiving!

The Casper cone, you take a waffle cone and you put hummus on it. It's
a joke I'll tell you when I get home.

Elder Casper

Dad,
I honestly cannot believe that thanksgiving is tomorrow and that
Christmas is a month from today.. It just blows my mind! I know we
have a good dinner appointment on thanksgiving because I heard she
cooks EXCELLENT food. I definitely will enjoy my last Christmas in the
mission field, I'll be home for the next one. As of now I think the
transfer date for when I go home is November 15th so that means I'll
go home on the 16th.! Anyways that's what I saw so we will see what
will happen.

I hope you have a good time eating food and watching food, that's what
I will be doing with you after the mission for sure. Can't wait. Haha

It's been hard to maintain our area but we have been having some
quality time in our area recently and we have been finding some really
sweet people. I'm honestly way excited!

Elder Casper

Driving in Manhattan twice already

Hello to all people who are interested in reading about my week! This
has been a pretty crazy week as you can tell by my subject but I'll
talk about that soon. We've had a good week and we were blessed to
hear from president smith at the zone conferences because we were
lucky to help.

Thursday we were in Manhattan at the Lincoln center chapel and Friday
we were in Yorktown over in Ossining. The zone conferences were so
kick butt. I didn't realize how expensive parking in Manhattan was.
Like 3 hours in one garage was $42 and 2 hours in another is $54..
Like holy crap that is crazy and we had to pay for the parking. We get
reimbursed so that's good because I don't think I can live off exactly
0 dollars and 60 cents.. That's totally crazy. But Friday we had to
drive over to Newburgh to drop off all of a sister missionaries stuff
she left in Chinatown that has been in our way all the time. Elder
Dutson got my sickness and he felt like crap the whole day and I have
been getting slightly sicker.

Saturday I got to do the mail route! It was my first time driving in
the city and I got to drive to Olmstead, then Kingsbridge, then
Inwood, then Harlem, the the 87th street chapel, then the 14th street
chapel, then to Chinatown. Then we get on the Henry Hudson and take
that all the way up to the cross county to the Bronx River parkway and
then to the mission office again. It is super long and we get to see
some of the missionaries in the mission. It was fun driving in the
city, it's not even scary and it's way easy, I'll be able to drive
when and if we come back after my mission. We got to bed early because
we were both aching and feeling crappy.

Sunday I had my first Ward council in this area, and had a good
sacrament meeting and church in general. Elder Dutson slept for 3
hours after church and got to heal a bit. I got to do my studies,
write in my journal, and shine my shoes (for the first time in a
while). We had a super amazing dinner with a spiritual lesson
afterwards. It was like WAY good!

Monday we had district meeting and we talked about the importance of
planning and setting goals. It was amazing! So one of the senior
couples took us to Smash Burger to thank us for helping with all the
zone conferences. We did some service for this lady named Jean Gruss.
We climbed on a ladder and cleaned her gutters..(luckily I've had some
practice with brother Waterlyn) but I climbed this ladder that was
barely touching the gutter and then climbed all the way up onto the
flat roof. I was scared for my life because this ladder was a cheaper
quality ladder. Anyway I feared for my life but good news... I'm still
alive! Don't worry.. Won't be doing that again anytime soon. We had to
fill orders that night.

Tuesday we did the mail run again and it took us forevskis to do it
all. Traffic for days and mucho the cars. I love driving in the city,
it's a quick way to get around too.. As long as you avoid the busier
streets, 2nd avenue is the way we always take and we get going quick.
You really get good at cutting people off.. I've also learned that I
have quite the road rage in the city. My patience has been tested and
it's been failing me. People irritate me because no one knows how to
even drive. I swear. We also get good at Bronx Parking which is when
you pull up next to a row of parked cars in the middle of traffic and
turn your hazards on and wait. People do that throughout the whole
city. You have to merge all the time because people Bronx park in the
most inconvenient spot.

I love this church and I love being a missionary. I've seen so many
blessings and I've done so much this past year and I've grown so much
and I have a lot of growing left to do. We will see where I am in a
year. I want to be more deeply rooted in the gospel and be able to
focus on what's really important in this gospel. I love you all and
hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Casper

Busy Week

Hello to all you wonderful people, as you can see by the email title,
it has been one busy week.

Last Thursday we had an MLC with Brother Donaldson from the missionary
department come and speak to a lot of the leaders and future leaders
in the mission. Since we are office elders we get to go to every
meeting which is a blessing and a curse. We get to hear all the
meetings in the mission but our days are always packed and we don't
get much time in our area. Brother Donaldson was the mission president
in the District 2 series that the church produced. We learned how we
can be better missionaries, how we can use the footage from the first
district as "game film" and how we can watch it and ask what did they
do? It was a super spiritual meeting and we really learned how to be
more effective missionaries and how we can use our planning and
companionship study time more effectively. That time is sacred and we
need to use it wisely because we are given that time to plan and study
for our investigators. I learned a ton and now president smith has
established a new standard of excellence, it's is that we get 3 new
investigators a week, invite to be baptized on first lesson, invite to
be baptized on specific date on the second lesson and 1 baptism every
other month. We were promised that we will reach the standard of
excellence every week that we will see success. Oh yeah that night we
did some tracting and we found a gay Quaker family that are interested
in hearing about what we believe in. That's awesome!

Friday we got to go to the new missionary training meeting and feel
the spirit. It was honestly a good meeting and it's always fun being
able to feel the spirit. Something president said was "If you feel the
spirit, follow it. If you don't feel the spirit, dismiss it to the
source it came. Truth comes from God." Something Elder Leishman (the
new AP) said was so dope and it really touched me. "When a thought
comes into our mind to be disobedient, chase it out because we love
the lord more."

Saturday was straight up amazing, I was on a split with Elder Gallego
(pronounced guy-ego) and we saw mucho the miracles. One of which was
awesome.. We spent a lot of the day doing look ups of potential
investigators.. We tracted and met this dude named Kevin who is just
cool.. He had a lot of questions about our church and we answered them
and testified. It was so glorious and it was so much fun. We then did
another look up and this is where the awesome miracle happened. We
were looking for a spot in mount Vernon (which is like the Bronx) and
we found an open spot but elder Gallego passed it and quickly went
into another spot right next to this telephone pole. There is this
paper on the telephone pole that says "garage sale" needless to say we
go to this garage sale. After some look ups and we go talk to this
lady and elder Gallego speaks to her in Spanish and we look around and
she has this box of ties. We talk to her and she is totally interested
in learning more. These ties though we 2 for a dollar but she gave us
the entire box of ties, like 20 ties! That was totally a spiritual
prompting and we listened and we found her. Solid! We also met with
one of their active members named Heraldo (pronounced hair-I'll-do)
but we taught him the restoration simply and I've never felt the
spirit that strong. We testified of Joseph smith and we invited him to
pray about the Book of Mormon and he said he would. I even accepted
that invitation and prayed about it and I know it's true, the spirit
bore witness to me.

Sunday we had stake conference and all us missionaries in the stake
got to sing called to serve and the spirit was there for sure. It was
a great meeting and it's cool to see how the spirit works and how we
can hear things from our leaders. Our bishop talked to us about how
revelation comes to him. It's not just him sitting there and the
visions of heaven opening up to him but it requires council. When we
receive revelation we are a council of 1, but we need to be in
councils to receive revelation. That was awesome. We planned a sweet
lesson for our dinner appointment and the spirit was so there as we
planned the lesson. We also learned that we will be going to all 4
zone conferences.

Monday our day was destroyed. We got up at 5 am and at 6 we headed to
Newburgh to help out with the zone conference. We got 16 pizzas that
we had to pick up with one of the senior couples. We took a couple
pictures and yeah. We just helped out and yeah. We filled orders and
we went and saw one of our investigators who is progressing well. We
testified to him of the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. We
could feel the spirit testify to him that he needs to read. He prayed
right then and there and kneeled and it was awesome. We felt the
spirit.

Tuesday we had our zone conference in kingsbridge so we shuttled
missionaries. We only got to sit for a couple of hours in our zone
conference. We drove with one of the senior couples around the Bronx
to find radio shack, yeah they don't exist anymore.. Eventually got to
Best Buy. Didn't have the part that we needed. President told us a
story of a missionary who was getting ready to go home and one thing
the missionary told president is that they didn't want to go less
active. President responds "well why are you planning on it?" And I
think it's important that we don't think about those things. If we
keep thinking how we don't want to be less active, then we probably
will go less active. It's important to do the little things, like
reading, praying and going to church. We got to see the new Christmas
video, go to christmas.mormon.org and you can sign up to get notified
when the new video comes out. Go check it out. We did some less active
look ups and ended the night.

I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to be here to serve the
lord. I've learned and grown for this past week. I've seen the hand of
the lord in my work, I've been prompted by the spirit to talk to
people or go to specific places. I'm grateful for this gospel and I
can't wait for the week to come. I love you all, have a great week!

First Week as Office Elder

Hello to the world! How is everything? My week has been super jam
packed busy and all that shnazz.

Friday there was an MLC, so we got all the mail at 7:40 and brought it
to the church and brought it all in. We helped set up for the meeting
and then we had to go to the Scarsdale train station to pick up all
the city missionaries who took Metro north to get to the meeting. The
meeting was great, we take pictures of the missionaries who make
comments and just pictures throughout the meeting. We just do whatever
anyone needs. We had a great time and the meeting was a spiritual
experience. After the meeting president asks us if we can go to
Ossining to get his bag and scriptures because he left them at
transfer meeting. We just said sure and went to Ossining but we did
this look up of this guy named Arnold and he is so prepared. He has a
ton of relatives who are Mormon and he is interested in reading the
book and learning so yeah we are gonna extend a Bap date next time we
meet with him.

Saturday we delivered mail in the city. Yay so I'll explain what
happens. We go to the mission office and get all the mail for the
specific delivery. We bring that all down to our car and organize it
so the first delivery is in the front and our last delivery is in the
very back. We start out by going to Olmstead, then to Kingsbridge,
then to Inwood, then to Harlem, then to the 15th street chapel and
then to Chinatown. But on Saturday we went to the temple and we just
Bronx parked out front and their were tons of cars behind us but
that's what people in New York do. It was fun to watch Elder Dutson
have road rage, this guy tried to cut us off in bad traffic and Elder
Dutson wouldn't allow him in. It was funny, this guy ended up getting
in right behind us. We went to the Uhaul place next where a lot of the
extra stuff the mission owns is stored. We did inventory of that and
then went home because we had to.

Sunday I felt like garbage but we had church so we went to that. I got
to give a closing prayer, we taught Sunday school because that's what
we do every first Sunday of the month in the New Rochelle 2nd Ward. It
was a good day at church and it was way nice to be able to go to
church and take the sacrament. Elder Gardner in our Ward told me that
I need to be sleeping and staying hydrated. So after church I headed
to go sleep and after I was about to fall asleep, the elders in our
Ward text us and ask us if we can go to the Roddys for dinner with
them, needless to say we went to dinner. It was bomb, we had steak,
potatoes, salad and bread. Oh my was it delicious or what? Anyways
after that I went home and slept for an hour and a half. It was such a
nice rest. And just so relaxing. Then we went to this Jdubbs house to
get a bible from her. My companion asked her if he could get a bible
because he has always wanted one. Then we went back home and I slept
for the rest of the night. It felt so great to sleep for that long and
on Monday I still felt pretty crappy. But it was nice to relax and
have that time to sleep so I can get better.

Monday we had a staff meeting which is just for the missionaries in
the office. President Smith, the APs, us, and the senior couples. It's
a nice meeting and we can hear what's going on in the whole mission.
We also can report on what we have been doing. Then we had zone
meeting which was about setting goals and how we can do that better
and how we can teach by the spirit more effectively. As an office
Elder, we get to fill the orders that the whole mission sends after
district meeting on Monday. We did that and it took a couple of hours. We
went to see Bob, which is one of our progressing investigators. We
taught him the plan of salvation and he has a few concerns with the
spirit world and judgement and that stuff. We testified and he was
thinking a lot after we left and he wants to come to church. He is a
solid dude, we just hope that he will read the Book of Mormon. He
understands the scriptures very well, he is a knowledgeable man. After
we went to look up Denise who uses family search and she is interested
in meeting but we are trying to see how interested before we send the
sisters over. We meet with this 12 year old named Ayden who has ADHD.
It makes it rather difficult to teach him, he was playing YouTube
videos as we tried to teach him. We were trying to read a story out of
the Book of Mormon stories children book. Needless to say
#thestruggleisreal. He is very all over the place and wouldn't let us
teach him. He may not be listening right now but down the road he will
actually be interested. We are being good influences on him and trying
to get him more interested.

Tuesday was delivery again in the city. That was fun. We got home, I
then got certified to drive the big ford Van. It's like what the
Milligans have, but now I have been driving that behemoth and it's
been a joyous experience. We went tracting though and we knocked on
this door and this guy answered and it turns out his best friend is
Mormon but he isn't interested in learning more about our church. You
never know what will happen because of that encounter with that guy.
He may be interested over time but whatever. One thing I've learned is
it doesn't matter how many people reject us because they really are
rejecting Jesus Christ. It doesn't phase me anymore. I've realized
that I'm doing my job, they just aren't accepting Christ in their
lives. Anyways we had a dinner with a member afterwards and yeah
that's it. That's my week for you! It's been crazy and it's gonna get
more crazy this next week. We have another MLC tomorrow with Elder
Donaldson of the missionary department tomorrow, we have a train the
trainees meeting on Friday, we will be on a split Saturday, zone
conference next week. Anyways it will be crazy next week!

I know that Jesus Christ is my savior. I know through Jesus Christ I
can live with my Heavenly Father again. I know that Christ atoned for
my sins and as I allow him in my life that I can be changed and I can
be clean. I know Joseph smith is a prophet of God and I know that
Christs church has been established on the earth once again. The keys
have been restored to the earth. We have the keys to do temple work,
we can all go into the temple and be sealed forever with our loved
ones. I know these things to be true. Anyways! Picture time! Love you!
Have a great week!

You have no clue how fun it was to be with all the departing
missionaries. That was our former AP in the middle.

Transferred to Mission Office

Hello all!

So you may be wondering why I didn't email you yesterday and why I am
emailing you on Thursday instead of Wednesday. I got Transferred, and
you'll never guess where I got transferred, to New Rochelle as an
office elder. New Rochelle is the area that touches my previous area.
It's still in the same zone. I'm now with Elder Dutson, and he is
super cool. I replaced him in Newtown but now I'm companions with him,
it will be great. Yay! So yesterday was just straight up crazy. On
Transfer days our pday gets pushed to Thursday's. I'll be super super
busy and we do so much. So we deliver mail in the city and all
upstate, we do random moves anywhere in the whole mission. We pick up
new missionaries at the air port, and sometimes drop of the departing
missionaries to JFK. We fill all the orders in the mission for
anything they need. We go to staff meetings, and all meetings in the
mission and take pictures. We pretty much do anything that the mission
needs. On Transfer days we take all the new missionaries to the Inwood
transfer meeting, after that meeting, anyone who is coming upstate we
drive up to Ossining. After the Ossining transfer meeting we take
anyone who is going to the city back down to Inwood. Then if anyone
forgets their luggage, we get their luggage and bring it to them. We
get to chill with the departing missionaries and eat and hear their
testimonies and bear our testimonies as well. So yesterday was a bit
hectic but today is my pday!

This past week has been a big blur but I know we had a super great
weekend. We had the Ward Halloween party, we helped set up a lot and
helped take it all down. The party was awesome because their was mucho
chili, and pies. I got to taste the pies and judge which one is the
best. I really loved. Peanut butter pie with chocolate.. Oooh so good.
It was great to be with the whole Ward and to offer service and do
whatever the Ward needed. We also went tracting with Sam and we found
this guy who told us to come back on Thursday and he said he used to
do a bible study with us and he belongs to the church Knights of
Columbus.. Pretty cool. Hopefully they will stop by today. That party
took our whole day pretty much and they had a gas leak outside the
church so we had to evacuate when we were setting up in the morning.
We did a mission conference call transfer call.. If that makes any
sense. That's when I found out that I'd be leaving Scarsdale to go to
New Rochelle.

Sunday was pretty good, church was good and I got to say goodbye to
the Ward and the people. We had dinner right after church with a
member for an hour and a half. Yeah Elder Kuo was super mad at the
Sisters because they gave him constructive criticism on how we taught
them. We used an old general conference talk to talk about eternal
perspective. Anyways Elder Kuo went off on that for about an hour and
a half. That ended our night.

Monday was my last district meeting as a District Leader. I got
released as a District Leader! I'm pretty relieved because now I don't
have responsibility other than being an office elder.. Which is a lot
of responsibility. We only get a couple hours in our area each day..
That's how bad it is. We got 2 zone pictures which I'll send. We
cleaned our apartment a bit and I said good bye to a couple members
and Elder Kuo was driving. Let's just say it's true what they say
about Asian drivers.

Tuesday I packed and said good bye to like 4 member families and I'm
gonna miss them. We also  switched our luggage with the office elders
because one of the office elders is replacing me and I replaced him.
Pretty dope stuff. It was a pretty sad night because I'm gonna miss
Scarsdale. All Tuesday I came down with a sore throat and all my
muscles and bones just ached. Honestly I slept the worse I've ever
slept in my life! I woke up every hour and just couldn't get
comfortable. I threw up in the middle of the night. Anyways I slept so
good last night. I took NyQuil and I was out so quick. I even slept
through the alarm. We play district sports at the chapel because we
live right next to the church. It's a 2 minute walk. We drive a
Behemoth of a van, just for a week we will be driving the huge van
because the normal van we have is used in another area. Anyways I'll
be driving in the city before I know it, it's possible that I may be
driving to Brooklyn or Queens for the air port! I'm so stoked!

I know that I'm supposed to here and that the lord knows what is
supposed to happen with me and the experiences I'm supposed to have.
I'm grateful for everyone who has had an impact on my life. I love you
all and hope I can hear from you soon. Have a great week!

1: that hat is levitating..
2 & 3: our zone picture
4: Elder Wallace (My Trainer) last night at the testimony meeting.
5: The view from new Rochelle of the city with some lightning.

Service, Cancelled Baptism and College!

This week has been killed and has been full of a ton of miracles, I
enjoy seeing the hand of the lord in the work that I do. I know that
he has been helping us a ton! Some pretty cool things happened this
past week. I'll go into detail now aha.

Thursday we were dropped by a less active, he slammed his hands down
on the table and told us we couldn't tell him that he needs to come to
church, and he will come when he wants to worship. He doesn't have a
testimony of anything but he is a good guy, just confused. It was just
planning so that was fun.

Friday we had a little APF in Yonkers in where we went to visit some
of their less actives and tract  for around 30 minutes and we saw some
success! Sam came with us again, that kid who came home from his
mission early but is going back soon. He knocked some doors with us
and he loved it. We found this really cool guy for them who asked us
for a Book of Mormon. It's not often that someone asks for a Book of
Mormon but he wanted one, he also wants to come to church! So that was
neat and we saw some other people who were generally interested. We
have also been visiting the active members so we can help them
continue to have missionary work flow through their brains. It's been
pretty successful!  We also taught Shikha and I have been working on
my teaching the Plan of Salvation skills because I taught it so
terribly at Shikha's, but we have to learn and practice to become
better.

Saturday we did some service, hence the title of my email. We do
service every 3rd Saturday in the morning for these people on Ferris
Avenue in white plains and we just help out in any way they need for
about 3 hours and we get free breakfast. We just enjoy serving and we
do the service with the Spanish elders and the Sisters in our Ward.
Because Sister Eastman is leaving in a week, the head guy in charge of
his activity grabbed sister Eastman by the hand and hugged her and it
was awkward. Yeah, it was a very weird experience but whatever. The
Yonkers Elders had a baptism and it fell through, the dad had cold
feet and didn't know if he had his own testimony so he didn't want to
do it if he wasn't ready yet. It's better that he told them that
instead of get baptized and then telling them that. Our plans were
shot.. We did some look ups and did planning.

Sunday was great, we had a linger longer. We helped set up and take
down. President Smiths son got the Aaronic priesthood and we were
invited to stand in the circle and there was a ton of missionaries and
President.. There was so much inspiration! We went to sacrament
meeting but none of the other classes, we were helping set up and
bring the food in and doing what missionaries do! But seriously it was
fun.. They gave us ALL the leftovers! That's way too much food.. It is
all sitting in the fridge right now ahah at the church. Free game. We
cleaned up the church a bit and returned a lost iPod to a family. Also
did a couple look ups which weren't interested. It's funny how sister
missionaries tract into all these guys who are "so interested" but
when we come to the door they aren't interested at all. Haha it's
because we're ugly! Just Kidding, but you never know.

Monday was district meeting, it was a good day! I was very happy! It
was a good district meeting and I dislike when no one will participate
and say anything.. It was super good though and they seemed to enjoy
it. We did do some tracting around Bacon Court.. BACON! We didn't see
too many people that were interested.. Too bad. We got ready for the
APF we are gonna have at the college again.

Tuesday I went on a split with Elder Burt in Yonkers and every time I
go on a split, most of our appointments fall through. Elder Burt is
awesome, he is a new missionary.. Only been in the mission for 5 weeks
but he has a strong testimony and really wants to work. We had a good
time and had lots of laughs. I love him so much, he has a real desire
to serve the lord. Sometimes it's nice to switch companions for a
day.. He is so sarcastic but we had such a good time. I had fun. We
went to a college in Westchester and set up a table and sat there and
quite a few people came over to us and asked us questions, it was very
awesome! We saw miracles throughout it though.

That's how my week went! I know we go through challenging times for a
reason and as you push through with faith that it will all work out,
it will do just that.. Work out! God knows we can make it through the
trial, keep pushing through. I know that God has created a plan for
each and every one of us to return to him one day, keep trucking,
studying your scriptures, saying your prayers and attending church and
you will see that plan more clearly in your life. I love you! Have a
good week!

1. With Sam in Yonkers
2. All of us at the service we helped with
3. This member named Justin in Yonkers and I

Zone conference with Elder Mervyn B Arnolds of the 70

This week has been fantastic, we are seeing miracles and we were
uplifted by elder Mervyn B Arnolds of the 70 as my subject states. It
was an uplifting meeting and there were a lot of aspects of missionary
work discussed. Before the meeting actually started we had a "Sons of
Helaman" Training by an elder in the mission. We talked a lot about
how we need to be exactly obedient and we can see blessings. We pretty
much chastised ourselves and talked about how bad we are now and ways
we can improve. We then headed on in to the gym to sit down with half
of the mission and learn from Elder Arnold's. He shook all of our
hands before we began and he shook mine and Elder Kuos twice. I felt
the spirit as he spoke to us! Random spiritual promptings came to him
and he read something that came to mind. It is what it means to be a
missionary. We are set apart from everything worldly and we need to
remember our purpose. That struck home for me, it was an answer to a
prayer and it was how I can be better. I forget that as missionaries
we are set apart on a higher plain of thinking and in how we act.. We
are representatives of Jesus Christ. He talked about how when we plan
for our investigators we need to continually seek revelation and
continually pray over what we need to do as missionaries. He spoke
about how we can help the work progress and how we can get the members
involved. I learned that bishop and the Ward mission leader need to be
our best friend. Asking the members for referrals will yield results,
as members we have an obligation to do missionary work, it's not just
the missionaries but honestly we need your help. Help God's church grow
and reach out to a friend. We learned that we can be better
missionaries and how we can be more effective. It was such a good
conference and we had to be out by no later than 5 minutes after the
conference ended.

Friday was weekly planning because we couldn't do it on Thursday. I
interviewed a family for Baptism in Yonkers and they are golden! They
will be moving into our area soon so then we will be able to help them
remain active. We also taught a brief version of the restoration to
the mom of sister Rodriguez her mom is pretty interested, she will be
attending the baptism of the Rodriguez family so that's pretty sweet.
We were also setting up a bunch of appointments with the members, and
the sisters split the Ward into half and we called one half of the
list and set up a time where we can stop by these members homes and
share a short spiritual message to get them excited about missionary
work.

Saturday we went over to a members house for a brunch but we had to
bring a 3rd male because it was a single sister. As the food was being
prepared, her neighbor came over and came on in and the cool part
about it is that she is pretty interested in the church and she had a
bunch of questions. The recent convert we brought yelled at her
because her beliefs are wrong.. That was interesting, you could feel
the spirit leave and it's not a good feeling.

Sunday we had church which was pretty stressful because we are talking
to every member we can and still trying to set up appointments with a
select few, and they have been offering dinner, so it's a win-win. A
spiritual message exchanged for a delicious dinner ahah. We have been
setting up times to meet with the youth to help strengthen them and
for them to bring friends to our visits. We will be teaching the youth
the missionary lessons. We had a couple missionary themed lessons that
started off pretty rough but have gotten better since.

Monday we had district meeting and the zone leaders told me to through
everything out the window that I had planned and plan off of what
elder Arnold talked to us about, so to say the least I had 1 day to
plan this amazing district meeting. We talked about planning and an
elder in the district named elder Burt said something inspirational.
He said "these people don't know how much I've studied and planned for
them, they don't know how much time we have put into helping them." I
think that is so true, people don't know how much time us missionaries
spend planning for them. We study for their needs to help them out. I
loved the comment.

Tuesday we had a pretty full day planned but most of our appointments
fell through. Luckily they did or we would have never met Christine.
We did a look up and then decided to go tract and right as I cross the
street there is this girl who is walking into her house but she looks
at me. I yell hey and then start walking away. I then have a prompting
to tell her we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints. She seems pretty interested in what we were saying.
We introduced the Book of Mormon and gave her a restoration pamphlet.
She said we can come back next Tuesday! We are seeing hard core
miracles and all I know is fast Sunday rocks.

Today while I was at the temple, I was reading the Doctrine and
Covenants and I was reading in section 138 which talks about the
spirit world and what goes on there. The spirits are taught the
doctrine of Christ, it reads:

"33 These were taught faith in God, repentance from sin, vicarious
baptism for the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost by the
laying on of hands" they were taught vicarious baptism for the
remission of sins. So in other words they were taught about baptisms
for the dead, instead of just baptism. I was thinking about how much
joy that must bring them to know they can still be baptized and that
is our job as members of the church. We need to go to the temples and
do as many saving ordinances as we possibly can. I love the temple and
I know it's truly the house of God. Go there as often as you can! You
will see the blessings flow! I love you all and hope you have a great
week!



1. Elder Henrie and I were shaving, we look good eh?
2. I hate 1 hour parking signs! Stop interfering with missionary work!
I ripped that out of the ground... Or maybe it was already on the
ground, I guess you'll never know.
3. Us that just went to the temple. Elder Kuo and I were the only
elders who went.. The session was all women and 5 men.. So yeah.

Conference, Stress and Hurricane Joaquin

Hello!

Everything has been great here and there are a few ups and downs with
the mission. I've been feeling pretty weird lately and elder Kuo and I
haven't been getting along super well. It's getting better and we have
been having a fun time though. This weekend was killer, those 3 new
apostles are going to be great and listen to elder Rasbands talk and
you will love it. Take the time to watch conference! Elder Kuo and I
got into an argument on Thursday and he wouldn't let it go so for a
couple hours we kept arguing and eventually we asked the sisters what
we should do and they gave us killer advice: "Pray for the gift of
charity, pray for each other and just let it go." And that was just so
amazing and it has been helpful lately. Slowly our relationship is
improving. Also we are safe from hurricane Joaquin, it did rain a ton
but it juked us and turned at the last moment.

Friday was fun, we had an interview with the sisters and did some look
ups, elder Kuo got some bad news from his mom, it turns out she has a
heart problem and he has been going through trials his whole mission
and he just can't get a break so we went and talked with president and
it was super good. He came out and felt so much better and it helped
him a lot. We helped set up for a baptism of an 8 year old child. The
baptism was great and there we a lot of people there. The spirit was
way strong and I love the feeling of being at baptisms. There should
be one this weekend of this family in the Yonkers branch, the Yonkers
elders have been working with them for a while. We had a Mexican
dinner at this ghetto pizza place who has an off menu and has all this
Mexican food. The place is called King Pizza and we got this burger
with like a ton of different meats on it.. Ooh so yummy.. It was way
spicy too. The rain was coming down pretty hard too but it was fun to
get poured on.

Saturday was conference but first we had pancakes and waffles at
presidents house with our whole zone. It was fun and we had a good
time. Conference was killer, there was so many great talks and it was
hard to absorb all of that information but I did enjoy it. I really
love Jeffrey R Hollands talk! Listen to it! We got a lot of fast food
that day but Worth it. I love conference weekend, this is my favorite
weekend and I love watching conference and taking all the direction
into my life.

Sunday was fun as well, I loved how conference ended and between
session we ate so much food because the Spanish branch feeds everyone
who is at conference at the church. We had such a great day.. We had
dinner at the smiths to end it off.

Monday we had zone meeting and I want to become more consecrated and
obedient and improve constantly. We had a lesson with our recent
convert John and he is seriously been improving lately. He has been
depressed but he applied the gospel in his life and the depression is
gone. We tracted with this kid named Sam who served his mission in the
south mission. He was doing a test run mission and he came home for
some medical reason but he is going back out soon. I love talking
about Justin's mission and places there. He's a very cool guy and we
talked to a ton of people. We knocked a lot of doors and we let the
spirit guide us and we tracted into one of our members which was
amazing, she talked to us for a while and then gave us water. Gave a
lot of people a lot of cards. We had dinner at the mall and I got a
lot of Chinese food for $6 and then a five guys milk shake for $5..
New York is expensive. That's what I've learned.. I'm trying to get
better at budgeting but it's not working out too good. We then went to
the church to go on a split.

Tuesday we did a lot of lookups and every appointment fell through
other than our dinner so we tracted and stuff. We helped the Yonkers
elders recent convert named Mike to set up his lds.org account and to
start his family history. It was a good day. I learned a lot from
Elder Jessee. He is from Pocatello Idaho and he is pretty cool. It was
one of those awkward splits. Anyways that's about it. We also went
through the sleepy hollow cemetery and got some cool pictures.
Tomorrow Elder Mervyn B Arnold's of the 70 is coming to do a mission
tour so hopefully that will be good.

I love this gospel, after watching conference my testimony was
strengthened that this is Christs church and that these 3 new apostles
which were called are inspired and they will be great apostles. Elder
Rasband, Elder Stevenson, and Elder Renlund will do great and I have
such a strong testimony of this church and I know I'm supposed to be
here. Missions are great and hard.. Even though they are hard they are
super rewarding. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us and
that we chose to be on this earth today. We need to come to Christ
because he is the center of the plan and without Christ, we would be
doomed on this earth. I love you and hope you have a great week.



1. I found a toilet..
2. A selfie with Sam
3. Sleepy Hollow