Last Days with Elder Tancayo

Hello to all!

 

This week has been interesting, we had a temple trip on Saturday and

Elder Tancayo is at the temple with the missionaries going home at the

end of this transfer. I am on a Trio split with Elder Richan and

Leung. We are having a good day but it's hard to be in a trio. It's

really inconvenient to have to do everything they need to do when I

don't need to do those things. Anyways now I'll talk about the week.

 

Last Wednesday after our nerf dart activity we went to a lesson with a

less active and she was going to take us out to dinner. Elder Tancayo

had a super bad head ache and he told her upfront and she gives him

Asprin and tells us we will reschedule. You know he is sick if he

wants to go home instead of eat food. We went home early and he slept

all through the night. He was out.

 

Thursday we weekly planned and had dinner at our Bishops house. He

started the Harlem branch which is the same ward that I served in

while I was there. That was super cool to know, he also started the

China town branch which is the ward Elder Leung has been in his whole

mission. It is cool how the Lord really understands and knows where we

need to be, even though sometimes it may not feel like we belong.

 

Friday was of course a snow day so we still went and did things. We

went to these less active members for lunch. They fed us some beef

stroganoff and white rice with this yellow sauce and chicken and it

was so good. For desert we had dulce de leche (which is sweetened

condensed milk that has been submerged in boiling water for 2 hours).

We put white cheese, the dulce de leche right on top of it. Pineapple

on the side or on top. It was super delicious and they are awesome.

They are a Brazilian family. We had lookups for "the month of rescue"

which is the month we reach out to everyone in our ward. Of course it

snowed all day and then into the next morning.

 

Saturday was the temple trip that I said we went on. Usually we can

only go to the temple on Pday, but Elder Tancayo asked the APs if we

could go. The trip was from a reactivated member who was receiving her

endowments. So we left at 7:30, got to the city at 9:30 and the

session didn't start until 11. The bishop of their ward paid for us

missionaries to eat. (His old bishop). We walked through Times Square

afterwards and got pictures. One thing I really dislike about the city

in the summer time is their is temptation everywhere. Seriously

walking through the city, everywhere you look there is people wearing

no clothes. It is so dumb and I feel bad for missionaries serving in

the city. It does not make me want to serve in the city in the

summer time.

 

Sunday we had church and lunch with a super inactive part member

family. The dad loves missionaries but doesn't want to ever come to

church again. We had a wonderful lunch and he took us for a ride in

his 2012 Chevy Volt. That thing goes fast and it is pretty cool to get

a ride. The only thing you can hear when riding in it is the road, no

sounds at all. It regenerates power when you slow down and charges it.

It would be a pretty good investment at one point.

 

Monday was district meeting and we went to banana Brazil and I had

quite of bit chicken hearts. They are pretty good and all the meat we

had was good but just way salty. It was for Elder Tancayo and we had a

good time.

 

Tuesday Elder Tancayo had his exit interview, so we went to Scarsdale

and I got to sit there and talk to office people.

 

So tonight there is a possibility that I may get a call from President

to let me know that I am training. President told elder Tancayo that

"I will be getting a new companion" but of course I am because Tank is

dying this cycle. I will let you know next week, and next week is

Transfers so hopefully it will be a big email to you next week.

 

The work is going good and I am giving my all, hope you are all having

a great time. That is everything for this last week, talk to you all

later!

 

Love,

Elder Domenick Casper

Hey Dad,

It has been cold and snowing and the dumb part is that it's spring, you're right it shouldn't be like this. I hope you have fun in Nashville and I hope you both feel good and have a wonderful trip together. You may not want to leave Brandi home alone, I'm not sure you can trust her to keep the house in proper working order. Haha just kidding.

The work has been going good, just a bit more tough because Elder Tancayo is going home but that's all good. I work out every morning and get huge, but I don't work out to get big, only to feel good about myself and concentrate on the work. I love working out. 

Thanks for sending me something, I really appreciate all you do for me :). We have an investigator named Darwin we have been teaching and so far he is following all the commitments we invited him to do. My studies have been intense. I am cross referencing all the lesson scriptures to the footnote scriptures. So at the end of each section in the PMG lessons, there are scriptures. I go through the scriptures and look at the footnotes and then cross reference them. It really has made me think more about the bible and how it connects to the Book of Mormon. I'm doing good here, no favorite scriptures at the moment. The ward here is an amazing ward, and I want to continue serving here. 

Love,
Elder Domenick Casper

Asian Splits

Dear Everyone,

Hey everyone this week has been a slow week.I

only have 2 weeks left of this transfer and then I have been out 4 1/2 

months and that is crazy to me.

Last Wednesday I went to the temple with the 

New York New York North Mission.

Saturday we helped move 2 people from the Danbury elders ward. They

are less active but all 6 of us elders went hard and it went quick. We

made a huge assembly line and and got all the boxes in the apartment

put in the truck really quick. This lady has like 3 floors full of

boxes and they are all written on in Portuguese so the Portuguese

elders and the lady knew what they said but no one

else. It was really fun, and the other move was up in the 8th floor

and we had the elevator, it took forever to do that but eventually we

got full control of the elevator. That made it so no one could access

the elevator but us, and that was super nice in the moving

process. The day we choose to

help move it rains all day.. So whatever.

On Monday we played billiards with this families kids and I got last place

and elder Tancayo got 2nd, but we have some pictures of that as well.

Nothing happened all the way until Tuesday, it has been a more boring week.

We have done a lot of look ups but this week we need to go way hard

and tract and make the best use of all the time we have. Tuesday I

went on a split with Elder Leung, in our area. We had apartment

inspections which Elder and Sister Lotz came up with dunkin donuts.

They looked at our apartment, luckily we cleaned that apartment good.

I guess we need to clean better in the kitchen areas though. Had a good day

introducing elder Leung to all the Asians in our ward (2 member

families). We taught 5 lessons, and tracked for an hour, and Elder

Leung taught me to always leave something, like a restoration pamphlet

and a card. We went to Johnny first and we read the Book of Mormon

with him and showed how the Book of Mormon answers those questions of

the soul. And also talked about church and hopefully he will come this

Sunday. We had lunch afterwards and we tracted from 2-3 and found some

success, this guy we found wasn't too interested but he has a friend

that is looking for something in his life. We got his number and

hopefully we will be able to teach him. 

One thing I need to work

better on is using time more wisely, like if we have time and not

doing anything before an appointment. We could go tract and plant

seeds for someone else to harvest. Make the best of every moment.

We had a couple less active lessons afterwards, the only reason they

are less active is because they are a little more aged and can't make

it to church. Had a dinner and then a desert appointment. We had a

good day and were really dedicated.

Something funny that happened while we were tracting is we knocked on

this door and this guy answered and said "nows not a good time" we

then asked "when is a better time?" And the guy responds "never". So

we were like out of 24 hours no time was good. We laughed after we

heard that. It was a good day.

That's all that happened this week, today we have a nerf dart war with

PVC pipe blow guns.

It's getting to that point where I will be buying short sleeve shirts.

Sometime in the near future. We have a mall here with all the stores

we have, also Costco.

So I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Domenick Casper

New York New York North Mission

Zone Conference & Temple

Hola to anyone who knows Spanish, otherwise hello and welcome to
another weekly email,

Lately missionary work has been a little slow in this area, all these
meetings we have been having have made us not be able to do as much
missionary work, but still it has been a good week. And now I'll go
into that.

Last Thursday we had our weekly planning but the main highlight of
that day was going to the Loutensocks. School was canceled for a lot
of people because of the snow that we received. No one wants the snow so
wish it would just leave. We did some service in the morning and then weekly
planning. Going to the Loutensocks was fun, we got there and brother
Loutensock was shoveling his roof off because the ice dams that cause
leaking in the house. So we got to be outside playing in the snow with
all their kids and do some sledding and just have a good time. We
really had a great time with their family and they are an amazing
family.

Friday I went on a split with Elder Encarnación who is my zone leader.
We really had a good time and it made me really think about what I can
do better as a missionary and ways to better become a consecrated
missionary. It was a good day and a good split, and he says I am
really good at being a missionary. We taught an investigator and I
invited him to be baptized and if he feels right about it then he says
he will be baptized.

Saturday was another slow day, visited one person, we had planned like
3 or 4 visits but because of the weather and this person we went to talks a lot and she
told us to go get food and gave us money. We went home and ate, and
after we ate one of our members called us offering us an ENTIRE pizza.
It was huge, like way big and we shared with our apartment because
they didn't have dinner. It turns out they turned down some free
pizzas and other stuff, and blessings came because of it. That night
is when we started cleaning our iPads off because we got a text from
our ZL's to clean our iPads off because we will be getting new ones.
That really excited me, because I love technology.

Sunday was the day where we got the most people talking to us at
church on my whole mission. We got asked to teach elders quorum, to
help give a blessing, to find people for other people. Every time we
get asked to teach elders quorum, our church has canceled. We did end
up teaching, and it went great and it was on repentance, it turned out
great. I gave my second blessing, well the anointing and that made me
happy. We got fed 2 times for lunch and dinner. People in our ward are
awesome, and they really love us missionaries and take care of us.

Monday wasn't too interesting but Tuesday was Zone Conference and it
was way cool, we had car inspections so we got our car clean just to
get dirty again but just for inspections it needs to be cleaned. A lot
of yesterday was a meeting and talking about a new initiative we were
doing. It is called "Because He Lives" and if you remember the because
of him video it is similar to that, you can go to the website at
www.helives.mormon.org
This initiative is amazing and the video will inspire you, I will let
you know when the video comes out. You will love it. It will be a
series of videos from March 28th onward for a while and that will help
us as missionaries. It will be a finding tool and a teaching tool, to
invite people to learn about Jesus Christ.

Elder Reyne writes it correct, it has been below zero, and luckily I think we are out of the coldness upstate, it's been in the 40s lately. Anyways I hope California gets hit with some moisture so you can live without a drought again. I think we are getting all the moisture that you need, wish I could give all the rain and snow to California.
Alma 5 is a really good chapter, I really hope I will be able to teach more than shovel but we will see how the weather is.
When I started I had a little extra weight from before I came out, when I ate all that fast food. But I've just been working out and losing weight, I've lost probably about 5 pounds. It very hard to lose weight because we get fed daily, and sometimes 2 times a day..  So we will see.
We got our iPads yesterday and they are the 2nd generation iPads and they have 32 gbs. They are way fast compared to our last iPad even though it was only the first generation. But this iPad is mine, so if I lose it or break it then I have to buy a whole new iPad. Just don't lose or break it, that easy.
That's cool how you went to the temple last night, I'm going today! My recommend holder is making the recommend pretty bad and I might need a new one, it's in my wallet which isn't the best place for it  because I'm always sitting on it. I'll probably just get one of those plastic holders at the temple and then clean the current one I have.
My companion goes home on April 1st, so he is almost at that point where he is home. That's when transfers is as well, 2 days before my birthday.

I don't
have any more to say!  Anyways love
you all! Peace out.

Elder Domenick Casper
New York New York North Mission

Mission Wide Training and Snow

Hello everyone who is reading this message!

Connecticut has been quite cold in the past months of my time here, we have been getting buckets upon buckets of snow dumped upon us.. and honestly it gets old real quick. It seems like we are shoveling about every day and I had no clue that's pretty much what missionary work consists of upstate. 

This week has been a very spiritual week with this meeting last Thursday and our interviews with president on Friday. On Thursday we had to be at the Lincoln center church (which is the temple) by 10:10, in our seats waiting for president Morgan to come in with Elder David Evans of the seventy, and Elder Steven Allan of the seventy. The meeting was a very spiritual experience, filled with a lot of personal revelation and it is truly a blessing to have general authorities come speak to us as a mission, it's just incredible. To get to the temple we had to take the Metro North train down to Grand Central, and either walk or take a subway up to the building. We decided to walk and to see all the beautiful sights of New York, one of those sights being Times Square! It was beautiful to walk through and see the huge lights and the New York people. That meeting took up our whole day, it was 7 o'clock by the time we got home with all the travel time. We didn't do anything that night other than eat and go to bed because of how late it was. The spirit was strong at that meeting, it was a lot to take in and it was just a good experience to have while I am here. It was about how we can Repent, Refresh, and Restart, and what we can do to better commit our time and lives to the Lord. The meeting was a lot about how to protect ourselves from temptation while using the technology we have as missionaries. We will be getting our iPads soon, probably next week at Zone Conference, that is how they usually give out the devices, give them to us and then have training on how to use them better. I thought i'd be getting Facebook soon, but they are unauthorizing  Facebook for about 3 months for all missionaries and online proselyting purposes. I won't be getting Facebook until the End of June or so, which I find as a blessing because I will be able to continue to do normal missionary work without the distraction of Facebook. 

Friday we had our interviews with President and a little training in our zone, and the interview that I had with president was super cool because president seems to say everything that I need to hear. He wants us to know that if there is anything that we need to repent of we are able to talk to him and he will love us so much more. I really love that, and love president and told him the struggles of a new missionary but over time that will change. Since my companion is going home at the end of this transfer president told me that I need to know the area for the next missionary to come. I took that as a sign that I might be training soon, which would be very fun but at the same time it is scary to think about. All these new missionaries have been choosing to go home, and that is what I am worried about. I don't want to train someone and have them decide to go home because that would be hard and emotional for anyone. Missionaries usually go home when they are new or later on because they hurt themselves or get sick. I really want to stay here and not wake up one morning and decide to get sick. 

Not much has been going on other than that, except all the snow we have been getting especially last night. We got snow, then freezing rain and today it has been raining and will then start snowing and there will be black ice underneath that so it might be rather dangerous tomorrow. People have been calling us on our P-day more than any other day asking for our help and we have been way busy today so there hasn't been much time to help people. I don't have much else to say. 

I know that this church is the true church once again established on the face of the earth, I know that through our savior Jesus Christ and the Atonement we can repent and be cleansed from these feelings of guilt and shame through repentance and forgiveness. I was reading from Alma 5 the other day and I really love that chapter, so I invite you to read Alma 5 and really think about it and write down any impressions you get. I have a testimony of repentance and forgiveness, I know that It can be done and that we are all able to be clean once again. I love you all and pray for you.

Love you, I'll send the weekly email soon! One thing I've learned is
the importance of our studies every day. That helps keep the spirit
with you, also doing family study and prayer. It's like personal and
companion study on a mission. 

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Casper