A Blessed Week

Hello family and anyone else, 

In my training as a new missionary we had Elder Perkins of the seventy talk to us, and in our area here in the Newtown ward we have Elder Gaye of the seventy. And hopefully we will have more general authorities speak to us. Oh that reminds me that general conference is coming up! I am so excited for this years general conference! That's the same week my companion goes home. 

It's sad to hear that Grandpa Miller passed on but we have that wonderful blessing in our lives to know that he is in a better place now and he is with Grandma Miller. I'm so grateful for everyone helping me on my mission. 

This week has been a great week, I have had 2 splits in the past week which I will talk about. I've also been doing A LOT of snow shoveling, like everyone is asking us to do it so we do get to strength our backs and get HUGE. So last Wednesday we did a zone activity in Ossining in which we watched Ephraims rescue and 17 miracles, both amazing movies. I love the storyline behind them all about our ancestors trek to Salt lake valley. But other than that our PDAY was pretty chill.

Last Thursday we had our weekly planning session which was super dope, we had some good plans. We set a goal the week prior to get 15 lessons with less actives, recent converts and members. We surpassed our goal and taught 16 people and taught 18 lessons in total. That was truly a miracle for this last week and we want to be able to do that again. We also went to the bishopric members house for dinner and on the way out I mentioned how I didn't have snow boots because they asked. So they gave me these huge snow boots, like ones that go up to my knees that they randomly bought, but they don't fit right and they wouldn't be good for walking everywhere. They are seriously HUGE. But I thanked them, I will probably give them back after I buy my own boots, we just don't have time to go get boots and winter is almost over so I feel like they are kind of a waste. I don't know how I would take them with me since I barely got here last time with the stuff I have now. I know I need to also buy shirts and memorabilia from harlem and stuff from the areas I'm in. Eventually. 

Last Friday our companionship went on a split with the Zone leaders, i splitter with Elder Whittaker and Elder Tancayo went on a split with a Elder Encarnaciòn. They are Spanish speaking and I went to their area and got to hear Spanish galore. So we went to this place called banana Brazil which is delicious but they only speak Portuguese but luckily elder Whittaker knows Portuguese. It's an all you can eat Buffett and we had a lot of sirloin steak and chicken wrapped in bacon. It filled my up so much. Then to top it off I got to try something that I have never eaten before. We got to eat Chicken Hearts, they are actually pretty good, they are just super chewy and kind of taste like chicken. It's just a gross thought, that used to be pumping blood. But it was something I can say I ate on my mission. We did a lot of tracting and it was all Spanish people and just interesting. I could understand some of what they were saying though which is definitely the gift of tongues. Because I am learning Spanish a bit, it really helps to hear it and I speak it on occasion. I also got to go to a coorelation meeting with them and they spoke Spanish the whole time. I was just sitting their eating pizza and listening and relaxing. Also got to teach some English class to people learning English. I had no idea what I was doing but it was a cool experience. 

Saturday I got a hair cut from Elder Tancayo which turned out super nice. The whole day we were blessed with a lot of lessons with members, and dinner with brother Benchivengo. There is actually a video all about him on lds.org if you want to check it out. It's in the hastening the work section and it's called "let your light so shine" it's pretty short but you should check it out. His wife isn't a member but she seemed super interested when we talked with her a little about the plan of salvation. The next day on Sunday he told us that she was really interested and he felt the spirit and it was wonderful. 

Sunday and Monday we snowing and we couldn't do much but we tried our hardest and still met with people and talked to them. Had our dinners and really had an enjoyable time. Sunday was great though, sacrament meeting was beyond amazing. We had a youth speaker who did a great job, the bishops wife and daughter did a mission report of their son on a mission with a lot of stuff to tell. Their son is in a branch with 2 member families total. That would be a lot of fun but a lot of hard work. Then the relief society president bore her testimony because she was released, and then Elder Tancayo gave a wonderful talk, then a sister in our ward. It was one of the best sacrament meetings I've ever been to. 

Monday we were grounded for a half the day but we did service a lot and we really enjoy seeing the look on people's faces. I ate an entire little Caesars pizza in one sitting and I felt so terrible but I lost weight somehow. And Tuesday I went on a split with Elder Richan in our district, and we had a good day full of shoveling and teaching. We had an impression before we went home to go stop by this potential investigator named Alec, as soon as we pulled up he came out. We couldn't meet at his house because his mom was sleeping but we met in our car so it was a little awkward. He had a lot of questions and he really seemed interested. We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it and go through it. He was excited and we set up an appointment and gave our church address. It was a super cool experience. 

That's it for now, I hope you all have a blessed and amazing week! Take care!

Love,
Elder Casper