Snow Storm

Dear family and anyone who is interested in reading this,

We got maybe a foot of snow here in Connecticut, everyone here over reacted to it. Everyone was stocking up on food and preparing to be snowed in for days, woke up in the morning and was super disappointed seeing like nothing outside but a lot of wind. Like a lot of wind. We have dinner with the Loutensocks weekly and it is super dope being able to talk to them and get to know them. They know you so I should know them. 

Our ward is a pretty huge ward, about 150 people in the ward. The Newtown ward, we are the only companionship serving in the ward because they closed the sisters area down but they are supposed to be reopening the area. We share an apartment with the Danbury ward elders, and they are super dope. Elder Richan is the one who started the meal plan.

Southington is 50 minutes from here, that is super close, maybe I will meet someone that knew you. My companion, Elder Tancayo goes home April 1st, so he will be home for my birthday! He is from Molokai which is a smaller island but he says he loves Hawaii. We go to the Snap fitness which is literally a gym that is like 1 minute by car. Every Monday and Thursday is back day, Tuesday and Friday is leg day, and Wednesday and Saturday is chest day. We wake up at 5:45 and go to the gym at 6-7, then return home for our day. I've lost 8 pounds in 5 days, and still losing weight! My goal is to lose 40+ pounds which isn't impossible. As long as I have faith in the plan and do everything that I am supposed to then I will see results. Just like the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you do what you are supposed to you will have the spirit with you at all times. 

I am truly excited for getting an iPad of my own, then I will get to bring it home with me after my mission. Do you have any idea what iPad generation we are getting? Does it say anything? Also I bought the hard drive. Thanks!

Well everything is great here, we have had snow quite a bit and of course we helped shovel snow Saturday and yesterday so my back is killing me. Yesterday we also hiked 1 hour and a half to get the chapel in Danbury because we weren't allowed to drive. So that's a bad idea because I don't own snow boots yet, we shopped on Monday but I couldn't find any that I liked. We are going to go to sports authority and then I will buy some nice boots. Monday we did a lot of preparing for the blizzard and we had to be in by 6 o clock. Apparently Boston got hit pretty hard. We got barely anything. I am slacking on buying a lot of winter stuff because I feel like I can make it through winter without the proper equipment. Once winter is over I would probably need to send you all the bulky stuff I own so I can easily pack things away and get them sent to me the next year. We did stop by a less active with health problems this last week. We talked for a while but then we shared the because of him video that the church made. The spirit is seriously strong, during that video the spirit hit me strong, I felt it burn within me and it was just the greatest feeling I've had throughout my mission thus far. 

Last Wednesday we went to the city and went back to harlem, so I got to see some people but we mainly shopped and took pictures. We should of planned it better but It was truly a great blessing to go back even though I'm out of money on my mission fund which is alright because we get money the beginning of each month. We also got a unity tie, it is a super nice penguin brand tie. And I know you dislike penguins dad but the ties are better than the animal. 

Nothing too crazy happened but it is super nice to be here, it's truly a blessing to be on my mission. I've seen myself grow a lot being on my mission. The spirit is overwhelming, and I see myself maturing and changing. If anyone is thinking about serving a mission, do it. The blessings you receive are worth the challenges and things that go on while being on a mission. I truly can testify that the lord does answer prayers and he helps you if you ask for it. Keep an eye single to the glory of God and you will be blessed. I promise you that. 

Talk to you next week. 

Love,
Elder Casper

Feeling Better

Hey family and all who want to read this email, I do get letters from
people and I am pretty good at responding to people. I like writing
letters and emails. The Loutensocks are awesome, we have dinner with
them every Wednesday, so there may be another picture coming your way.
We have our coorelation meeting afterwards every week so it is like
perfect and I guess sister Loutensock said that you found out a way
that we are related. And I was totally mind blown because of it, I
guess their oldest is friends with Brandi on Facebook, so I guess that
makes it facebook official for our families. As soon as I get Facebook
I will probably add them all because of how legit they are. I love
service it truly shows how much we care about the people we serve.

I'm feeling a lot better, Elder Richan in our apartment has been sick
for a few weeks, but I am definitely feeling good. I've been going to
the gym here to get yoked and huge. Just on a mission I need to be
careful so I don't hurt myself an get sent home. I'm going to keep
myself safe and keep praying to keep me safe as I work out. The
weather has been crazy here, I'll tell you a story about it in a
second. I will by driving soon and I am honestly super excited to
drive a newer car.

I really wished I was home more as a kid so you could see me more
often. That stinks that you don't get to see Brandi as often as you
wish you could.  I guess I am pretty loud some nights with snoring haha.

EFY CDs would be awesome. Like the
newer ones because they have a lot of good music. I think that's kind
of it.

So this week has been a little different. Last Wednesday we played
street hockey but I didn't play because I wasn't feeling too well, but
it got better through the day. We had fun at the Loutensocks. Thursday
was the day of the meal plan and a car fast. So we weekly planned and
then did some look ups while walking around in the cold and finally
got into this less active/part member house and got to get to know her
and her kids. They have some disability but he stutters and talks a
lot and fast. It was great and he is really an awesome kid. But we had
to get going after a bit and it was a cold hike back home so by the
time we got home we were frozen. On the bright side I lost 3 pounds
that day so I felt awesome.

Friday we had service at a less actives warehouse helping him move
boxes(he sells diaper bags) he is from China so he gets everything
made there and his business is Soho Designs. Helped for 5 hours, then
he took us to a Chinese all you can eat buffet. We have dinner
appointments every night. It is hard to stick to the meal plan. So I
actually gained weight throughout the week, back to where I started.
But it will go back down, I will make it. That was our entire day.

Saturday we got to bowl with a less active and set up an appointment
to read the Pearl of great Price with her. She wants to understand it
but I have never really read it so it will be fun. She took us to
Wendy's afterwards. She takes us bowling every month, and it is
awesome, it has been a long time since I bowled. We then just did look
ups for the rest of night and set up return appointments. We have been
sharing the mormon message New Years: Look not behind thee. And this
family we went to had Lots wife as a pillar of salt sculpture so that
was perfect.

Sunday was the day with the story about crazy weather. We woke up and
we we're getting ready and we receive a phone call from Bishop Keller
to let us know that church has been delayed until 10:30 so we cooked
some of our meal plan food. We texted people and we were getting a
billion texts from people and we were just chilling. Then we receive a
text from bishop telling us church is cancelled! That is the first
time that has ever happened and it happened because it was raining and
it was freezing as it rained. The ground was all ice. 100% ice and
water. You slid if you drove, and our church building has a hill to
get up to the building so there was no getting up that. That was one
of the weirdest Sundays I have ever had. The weather was bad. We had
to teach elders quorum but we got out of that! We went to a less
actives and his parking lot was completely ice. So we were going to
park and we turned the wheel all the way to the right and still was
going straight. We were sliding because there was no traction. None at
all. We had a discussion with him about his problems with our church
so we have to start all over from the beginning in basic principles.

We are going to the city today to visit Harlem because my companion is
going home soonish so he wanted to say hey to people and he gets to
see his cousin at the temple, he is serving in the south mission and
his cousin also knows Elder Brandon Waidmann. He is going home soon so
I might see him at the temple. That would be so cool, if I do I will
send you a picture. Slim chance though.

That is pretty much it, until next time. Hope you all have a great a
blessed week.

Love,
Elder Casper

Newtown Connecticut 2nd Area

Hello everyone, this week has even crazy with all the changes in my schedule. I am actually in Newtown Connecticut, that's my area. In the Yorktown zone. It's a crazy big area we cover. So Wednesday was just weird for me, there are 2 transfer meetings that go on. One is in Inwood (City) and the other in Ossining (Upstate). I had to go to both. The city one starts at 10 and afterward we have like half an hour to chill and talk to people until we leave. I got to talk to people from my MTC district and they didn't believe that I was already transferring after 1 cycle. Then the AP's take us to the upstate meeting which starts at 1. I got to talk to more of my mtc district and see how they are doing. I'm actually serving around one of them. That's where I met Elder Tancayo, he is the district leader and he only has like 11 weeks left until he goes home. We really didn't even have a pday, we did some service for the last hour and a half, then some. We have been sanding these wood floors in there home and recently we just helped them stain and poly the floors. It looks so good, too bad that's not the end.

Anyways I will go through how my week has been. One Wednesday we also had a meeting with the ward mission leader and bishop. Do you guys remember a family named the Loutensocks? They lived in Lincoln in Mariner Circle and were in the 1st ward from 2000-2002. I got to meet sister Loutensock on Sunday and she told me she remembers me when I was a little boy. She says mom and her are facebook friends. Anyways we will be having dinner at their house every Wednesday night for ward coordination. You can ask her how I'm doing if you want to :D

Thursday we helped brother Cunningham sand his floors again. Our days have been really busy with service. It's way different then the city here. Just because the people are friendly and they have service for us to do. So my roommates are Elder Richan and Elder Palakiko. Elder Tancayo and Palakiko are both from Hawaii, so I have been trying Hawaiian food which is actually unique. Elder Richan has this meal plan that actually works. There is like a strict diet and exercise that helped another guy on the mission loose 52 pounds in 16 weeks. So I am trying it and he promises me that I will see results. The only hard part of the meal plan is all the people that feed us every night. But we will see how it works. 

So there is this guy named Johnny Choi and he has a huge wear house full of diaper bags and we help him weekly and what he does in return is takes us out to wherever we want. And he pays for us. He is an extremely cool dude! He loves having the missionaries over and loves taking us out. Our stake President here has been wanting us missionaries to get into members home and talk about these tools we have as missionaries called "lightening rounds". These rounds are simplified versions of the lessons we teach as missionaries kind of like an elevator pitch. He wants them to know these and to use them just so everyone knows the doctrine behind them. He wants us to visit every quorum and organizations in our ward and show everyone how cool we are. So they want to be missionaries and start growing their testimonies. 

It is honestly super cool to see the ward work together to try to get us in every place and just be super effective about it. Bishop told us that we will probably be giving a talk soon too, he wants us involved in EVERYTHING! 

There is this family named the Knibbe family which is pronounced Ka-nibbe. Their son served in the California Roseville mission which totally made my day. He was in Lincoln for a bit, in the Spanish branch. He finished his mission in 2007 so it has been awhile, I was barely 12 when he served so I have no clue. I love hearing about people that served where I live because no one knows where Lincoln California is and when they did I am super shocked. I truly have been sent here for a reason and not to just get transferred randomly. Heavenly Father has been a true influence. 

We do so much random acts of service, just when people aren't expecting it we shovel the entire complex, or a pathway in front of a house just to be super nice. You don't ask to do something kind for someone as a missionary. It's such a good feeling to do service for people. I love it so much, when ye are in the service of your fellow being, ye are only in the service of your God. (Mosiah 2:17) True story. 

That is something that the youth need to know, that serve whole heartily and love who you serve. Service is not a burden it is truly a blessing. You don't know what people are going through, so if you serve.. You were sent there for a reason to help that person. If you have an impression to serve, just do it. You will be blessed, and I promise you that. Our mission ️President encourages us to do as much service as possible because that shows love and it helps people. Just like we are supposed to be doing. See that ye serve with all your heart, might, mind and strength. Just as D&C 4:2 says. 

On Sunday we got to stand outside the chapel and say hello to everyone entering with big smiles and being cheerful. I try to say hello to everyone entering the chapel. To introduce myself so people can get to know me slightly better. It's truly a wonderful feeling to be happy where you are and to feel the spirt with you is just amazing. 

Honestly I want to bear my testimony on the importance of preach my gospel. Everything in there is truly revelation from God, and is here to help us as Latter Day Saints. Even if you don't want to go on a mission please study it and get familiar with it because everything in there helps you become better. I've been reading about Christlike attributes and I am trying to work on all of the attributes I can because that's how I can be successful as a missionary. I challenge everyone who is reading this to learn preach my gospel. To study it daily along with the scriptures because they go hand in hand together. I have to study and read it daily to help me progress on my mission. Like a speaker at the mtc says "fill the suit".

So we do car fasts every week, so at that time we walk around the town of bethel, which we usually do on the day of our weekly planning or possibly Friday. Johnny will pick us up and drop us off, usually our day is pretty much done afterwards. Last time he took them to the Cheesecake Factory, and they got whatever looks good to them. 

Speed bumps here are called speed humps, like who came up with that idea? Like what?

Until next time

Love,

Elder Casper

Ps. Whenever the new 2015 EFY comes out I kind of want it. I actually would like all of the newer ones. It would be so awesome! And thanks for all the support while I'm on my mission! :D

Transfered to Yorktown

So this week has been crazy, Saturday was shock calls which are

transfer calls, they told me Elder Wallace and I are staying so we

were excited. We were happy we were staying! Then Monday after our

district meeting we got a call from one of the Assistant Presidents,

he told us that we were transferring because someone that was supposed

to come in, decided not to, so we are leaving Harlem! Elder Wallace is

going to Scarsdale, and I am going to Yorktown! So my new area will be

Yorktown and my new companion will be Elder Tankio! So yeah when we

got that call, I was so nervous that I was leaving. It's my 2nd cycle

and I'm already in my 2nd area. I'm not even done with 12 week, I

really am not too excited to leave because I just got to know the

area. And I seriously don't want to get fat upstate. Everyone does...

But in all reality the lord needs me up there. There is some

experience that I need to have, someone is waiting for me to teach

them. But that is the crazy news I need to tell you!

 

These past couple days have been super crazy because of all the

packing we had to do. When we woke up this morning it was pretty

emotional, we are all pretty sad. Everyone in our apartment is leaving

but one of them. They closed our area down, and it was absorbed by the

other Elders in our district. It is way crazy, yesterday we went

around saying goodbye to a lot of the ward, and just getting pictures.

I'll send the pictures in a while. I want to know your thoughts on the

whole transfer thing? I get a car! I have to drive safely, and

cautiously in New York/Connecticut. That's my zone, right between the

two! That's what some one told me!

 

My week has been crazy, I can't remember what happened anymore, just crazy!

 

I'll let you know how things are next week, until next time!

 

Love,

Elder Casper

New Year

Hello family, Happy New Year! This last week was pretty chill and

awesome, of course we had Christmas and everything. We went to a

temple missionary couples house, all 6 missionaries in our ward went

to their apartment. They are like on the 12th floor and they have a

nice little apartment. One thing they said to us is its amazing to be

a senior missionary because you get to choose your companion. I

thought that was funny, anyways they gave us all a $10 Wendy's gift

card! And they are just way to sweet, and they talked to us and asked

questions about our families and home and stuff. We were kind of mad,

people from our district went ice skating that day, even though we

weren't supposed to. But we will receive those extra blessings.

Friday we were supposed to weekly plan but we had lessons and

basketball with some Homies from Costco. And dinner oh yeah I also

split with one of the zone leaders, Elder Duvall.

Saturday was good, I got to lead the area and lead all the lessons.

Elder Duvall kind of just added input but allowed me to teach it all

and ask questions. What really stinks about Friday and Saturday is the

lack of companionship study we were able to have because of how busy

we have become. We had a wonderful APF which is an Area Proselyting

Focus, which is where we choose one of the areas of a companionships

and tract or do something amazing to get new people interested. It's

really awesome especially with the He is the Gift video initiative.

There was a funny experience we had while on the split, we were on the

bus and this guy is like talking to this girl that's in college. He is

asking all these deep questions and totally hitting on her. He said he

was 57 years old and she was just awkwardly laughing. Oh and later on

we were doing a less active look up, and we tried ringing ourselves in

but this guy came up and said I can let you in if you give me a

donation, because of things that have been going there, then he

changed his story saying he got stabbed in the jugular, and how he is

lucky to be alive, then he was finally just like I'm just messing with

you guys and let us in. It was pretty sketchy, but yeah, we walked a

ton that day... Like a mile probably.

Nothing crazy happened on Sunday but Monday was pretty cool. I used to

hate Monday's back home but now they are another day. We had our

district meeting, and Elder Gamble which is in our Zone leaves this

week, so we had our meeting and took some pictures with him, which I

will send. We were lucky enough to have dinner with our bishop and we

asked if anyone cuts hair, and turns out their is someone in our ward!

I also went on another split with Elder Raine from our district, and

we walked 3 miles that day. 20 blocks=1 mile.

We tracted on Tuesday, ran into a Hispanic lady, some girls, and an

atheist dude. They are teaching the atheist dude, which is totally

amazing. I also got to speak Spanish a bit to the Hispanic lady, just

simple phrases. The atheist dude wants to study religion. It seems

like all atheists study religion for some reason, but his name was

Emir. That was a pretty good night.

Yeah yesterday was New Year's Eve, and we had to be in by 7 and of

course our fridge decides to make our night interesting, making weird

noises. We got to call Santiago to come fix it, he is the repair man

dude person. He was talking about weird things in the bible. It was

super weird, it's cold here in New York and yesterday I wore a sweater

and long sleeve white shirt, and I was freezing during walking to

appointments and our zone APF.

Happy New Years, it was really fun talking to you family, and I will

be doing some shopping soon. We are almost done with our first cycle!

Next Wednesday is transfers! And a roommate is training in our

apartment so I won't be a baby anymore! I am so excited! Then in 6

more weeks I will have facebook, and be able to post spiritual stuff!

I'm ready!

Talk to you next week, oh yeah and New Year's Day in New York is so

empty because of all the people staying up and partying and the people

who have a hang over. Haha well peace out everyone!

Love,

Elder Casper