Alma Academy, Stake Conference and Baptism

Hello to everyone! This week has been crazy fun!

So while we were planning on Thursday the Zone leaders come into the
room we were planning in. They tell us that we are going to the city
this Saturday for Alma Academy which is a day in the life of a
missionary. The youth from this stake got to go on splits with us down
near the temple. So on Saturday we woke up at 4, drove to Stamford at
5 and got to the Stamford chapel at 6. We were driven to Manhattan by
the office elders and it was such a great ride. We did some street
contacting with a 16 year old youth and we gave some copies of the
Book of Mormon. It was a good experience for me, I realized that I
need to talk more and open my mouth to everyone. It was such a great
experience and I felt the spirit guiding my words to everyone I opened
my mouth to. I was definitely blessed to be a part of that and
Heavenly Father wanted me to have that experience. I sweated so much,
and we had to wear our suits and it was a pretty hot but luckily
windy. We also met so many members while doing the Book of Mormon approach.
We have this huge piece of plywood with Book of Mormon written on it,
so people got pictures with it. I got pictures with it, so I will send
that.

We had stake conference this weekend, and the adult session was
amazing and so spiritual. It was one of the last times president
Morgan would speak as a mission president. Our stake president and
area 70 spoke. I love stake conference so much, and I took so many
notes and it made me want to be better and to have faith. I am so
happy I am a missionary and that I am apart of this mission. Sunday is
where the miracle happened, we were doing our companionship study and
we get a phone call from some guy from Utah. The guy tells us that
they are working with someone over there who wants to be baptized and
he is moving to Bethel Connecticut. So that is our area, and yesterday
they met with this guy on a split and they extended a baptismal date
of June 27th, and it turns out he wants to be baptized on the 20th. So
we have a baptism on the 20th and I am super excited. We meet with him
tonight and introduce him to members and figure out what we need to
teach him. He has been investigating the church for a while and he is
super ready to be baptized. We think he has already been taught
everything but we are excited! My first Baptism on the mission! It's
not often that people fall out of heaven and want to be baptized! I
love it so much and I'm so excited.

We have been giving out a lot of copies of the Book of Mormon. This
area is starting to see progress, we are hoping we have some more
people to teach. We have been tracking so much, and it's great.. Oh
and there are 2 more weeks left of this transfer so that is crazy!

We had a split yesterday, I went with Elder Hofheins to his area. I
got to be in the Spanish program for a day and teach people and be
part of that. Elder Hofheins told me that he looks up to Elder Ross
and I because he knows we hit it hard and tract our brains out. That
made me feel good but I look up to him a lot. Anyways it was good, we
got hit with a huge rain storm where there was so much water coming
down we couldn't even see. Even with our windshield wipers on full.

Anyways that's about it for this week, I love all of you so much and
sorry this email is random and yeah. I can't remember much to that
happened haha, love you!

Newtown Never Gets Old

Hello dear people who want to read my email,

This week has been random and fun and crazy and yeah. So last Thursday
the Assistants to the President came down and tracted in our area
because they want to see how all areas of the mission are doing. We
found someone who may be interested and told us they would call us so
that's pretty cool. Later that day we were walking down this street
and this lady slowed down next to us and said "don't knock on my
door", and then told us the number... She pulled into her driveway and
we realized that we already did.. So yeah. People aren't super
receptive to this message here but we try! It rained so hard as well,
like we were going to a gas station to go use the restroom and as soon
as we got there it was pouring and we ran inside and we were already
super wet. Then by the time we were done there were huge puddles and
we got soaked. Rain over here is random and intense.

This weekend has been down in the 50s because of a cold spike. Also a
lot more rain, and this time we were pretty far away from our car so
we sprinted to our car and yeah there was no out running that rain. We
were soaked by the time we got in our car, dripping wet. I can
honestly say I don't like random rain storms.. But I definitely love
the people here!

We decided to tract the other day after we visited a less active (it
poured that day as well). Knocked on the first door, no one answered
and on the second one, this guy was playing guitar, and I told Elder
Ross I played guitar. The guy opens the door and elder Ross says
"Elder Casper plays guitar" and the guy says "well come on in". I
guess he was a former investigator, and he was dropped a year ago and
he let us in. He let me play his guitar a bit and then we had a really
sweet discussion about how the callings are chosen in our church. He
told us to drop by whenever and he would make us brownies and we could
teach him! He was really cool!

About 14+ Families are moving out of this Ward this summer, so about
50 people are leaving to the west coast! (Yay for west coast, a lot of
them to California!) a lot of missionary work needs to be done here to
keep the ward growing.

We found this guy who is training to be an episcopalian minister, and
some of his family are a members, he has read the Book of Mormon and he
had a testimony of it. He is way enthusiastic and he loves scriptures.
He prayed us out of our lesson and we all held hands and the spirit
was with us in that meeting and I hope him and his family will like
what they are hearing and feel good. While he was praying he was
praying for us to have wonderful missions. He is amazing and would
make a strong member in this Ward.

We had dinner at a members house last night and he showed us a really
cool way to tract. You say your missionaries and you want to talk
about the Book of Mormon. The pictures in the front explain what the
book is about, it's all about Jesus Christ, it's about Lehi and his
family being commanded by God to leave to the Americas, the build a
ship and head to the Americas, there are baptisms and crazy things
going on! Then Jesus Christ appears to the people of America, and
performs miracles and ministers unto them. Then you show them chapter
11 of 3rd Nephi and invite them to read it and ask if you can come
back and talk about it. You follow the spirit of course. And it works,
we did it to a potential investigator and she let us in to their home
and we used the Book of Mormon and invited her to read chapter 11 and
she was excited! It was way cool to see that work and I could feel the
spirit working through me and I was so grateful for that moment.

He also told us that we should always be praying, especially at every
door. But missionaries who have a prayer in their heart always asking
for help as you teach are successful. I tried it yesterday and I felt
the spirit stronger than I've ever felt it. I love this gospel, I love
being able to "flood the earth" with the Book of Mormon and to be a
representative of Jesus Christ. This Gospel brings me so much joy and
I love sharing it with everyone!

Thanks for everything you do for me, and thanks for all of your
prayers! Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Dad,

I have been super good, missionary work has its ups and downs but I'm
on the uphill climb of it all. Im feeling a lot better and now I have
just been super sore from all the tracting we do. We have been working
as hard as we can and we try not to waste any time! We have been
finding new people that were interested, and people have been
generally pretty receptive. There are some cool stories I'll tell in
my weekly email.

Brandi doesn't ever write me, but tell her congrats on graduating! I'm
excited for her! I'm also excited that you all will see grandparents.
Sounds like a lot of fun. I'm the lowest I've weighed in a long time!
My new weight is 222.4 lbs! I'm not sure how it all goes down.
Anyways. Yeah life is good here and I'm feeling like I'm leaving this
area after this Transfer. I am definitely excited to see where I will
go next. But of course I don't know, only the Lord knows! I have 20 or
less pages left in my journal, so 20 days!

Are you excited to have your last kid be done with high
school and leave? You will soon be empty nesters! Time will fly by and
then I will be home before you know it! Everyday flies by and it's
becoming faster and faster each day. Sometimes I do miss home but I am
trying my hardest to be as consecrated as possible. Hopefully we will
find some sweet people soon, other than the people we have already
found. I don't know what else to say but I hope you're doing good!
Keep reading and praying and studying preach my gospel and the
prophets and apostles. Especially as a family. Make that a priority. I
wish we did that more when I was younger.. Anyways!

I love you and mom so much, you have taught me to do so many great
things and with out you guys, I wouldn't be here. I'm grateful for
what you have taught me, you have raised me to be so much more than I
could ever do by myself. I wish I was better than I was before my
mission, I wish I did the things I had to and was a more obedient
child. Truth of it all is that I am changing and it's what the Lord
needs me to become. Thanks for everything! 

Love,
Elder Casper

Interview President Morgan

Hello to everyone who loves missions,

It has been getting hot and humid, definitely not my 2 favorite things
that's for sure. This last weekend was incredible, there was a cold
breeze coming in so tracting was fun. That's what we have been doing
with a majority of our time. We don't have any investigators so we've
been trying to do more finding so we can teach people in this area.
Our finding has been kind of successful, we found this girl in
Brookfield who was interested, she is a senior in high school and she
loved the message we shared so hopefully we can teach her, and
possibly some families but there isn't much teaching going on in this
area, one thing we are really trying to work on.

Last Thursday we got a call from the zone leaders and the Assistants
to the president are coming on a split with the zone leaders in our
area, the AP's want to see how all of our areas are doing and we
really need help in Newtown. I have been praying for miracles and
asking for guidance and I feel that we will find someone soon! 

Sunday we had interviews with President Morgan and he hinted to me
that I'm probably going to be transferred next transfer (Which I'm
fine with). It would be good to see other parts of the mission.
President is an amazing man and it's sad that he is leaving is in
July... I'm excited for president Smith!

Monday was Memorial Day, so happy Memorial Day to everyone, we went to
a ward picnic and ate a lot of food and socialized with the members
and all that fun stuff. Ate some Ice cream, oh then tracted aha. We
ran into a veteran who cussed us out on Saturday... But then we found
an extremely nice guy who was pretty interested afterwards.

Tuesday was fun, we have Zone conference coming up and we will be
getting Facebook back around June 12th and everyone in the mission has
to prepare a 5 minute talk on obedience which is a piece of cake. When
you are obedient to the rules you are more successful, you are
blessed. I'm excited to write the talk and receive wonderful training!
There is a lot going on in the mission right now.. But that's pretty
much it! I love our members, they like sending pictures to our
families, and I love that! 

Life is great, missions are great and I'm having fun and sweating a
lot. I now weigh 222.4lbs. I love this work and I have been studying
preach my gospel a lot and chapter 2 where it talks about the role of
the Holy Ghost in studying and when you study you should pray to have
the Holy Ghost teach you while you read. I've noticed when I pray for
the Holy Ghost my studies are amazing and I learn so much!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and stays cool! Sorry there are
no pictures this week.

Love,
Elder Casper

Mom,

Hello! My week has been great, and we have been doing a lot of
tracting ha. Memorial Day was good, we went to a ward picnic and
walked around and talked with members. I have been sick but now it's
just allergies so that's fine. 

Our investigator is doing pretty swell, we haven't been able to meet
with him for awhile, hopefully soon. We found some other cool people
that hopefully will be interested. I really don't feel like I'm
growing all that much but thank you so much mom!

I have probably 25 pages left in my journal, not too much left but
hopefully you can get me one soon! I remember I used the tall font!
Haha. I can't believe Brandi will be working at dads office. Will she
be answering phones and things like that?

I love you!

Love,
Elder Casper

Working Hard in Connecticut

Hello all,

What's all going on? Everything is going great here in Newtown. For
anyone who doesn't know I now have a new companion whose name is Elder
Ross. He is from Green River Wyoming and he was trained by the same
missionary as I was. He is a hard working missionary and he is very
obedient so that is good. He is a good influence on me after having 2
companions who went home aha.

I've been sick for this whole past week and I'm slowly recovering! We
have still been getting our tracting in and finding people who weren't
interested in learning anything but they were super nice to us. One
guy we ran into was on the grass with his dog and we came up and
introduced ourselves. He immediately asks us where we are from and
talks to us and he knows members who live outside of our mission and
we gave him the gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and our number if he
was ever interested. We haven't seen too many miracles happen this
week but I can list out what happened this week! 

Wednesday we looked up a potential investigator and she told us to
come back later. I wasn't feeling to great so we went in early to
rest, oh and we made a bunk bed in our apartment and settled in. And
it was the start of a wonderful companionship!

Thursday was Weekly Planning and a cool little lesson with a member
and 2 non members. So this guy from Yuma Arizona has his sister who
lives in Ridgefield Connecticut. The non members are both a little
older and the man has bladder cancer and the women broke her leg bone
or something but they both work at Keller Williams. We talked a lot
about what we do as missionaries and just answered the questions they
had. We will be calling them soon to set up a time to come back.

Friday we went to see some of the less active older people and just to
be there for them and read with them! I love being around old people
because they are super nice to us and love us and always thankful for
us being there! Did a lot of finding as well and weren't too
successful.

Saturday we did some service for a non member who knows a member from
our Ward and we were in the forest pretty much, cutting vines from the
ground and ripping them out and all that fun stuff. Yeah it was a good
opportunity to talk to him about what we do and we left a good
impression with him. We went up to sandy hook to do some finding and
we decided to knock this entire street and we did that. At the bottom
of the hill this weird guy said to us "is that it?" " why don't you
keep going, go up there." So we decided to listen to this guy and we
went up to this street, knocked on some houses and at the fourth house
this guy comes out of this side garden and says hello. Soon his wife
and kid come out as well. They were way friendly to us and we talked
to them for 25 minutes. Turns out this lady knows someone from our
Ward! It was such a blessing from the lord, we have put in time to
find his children and he finally blessed us with a family. Preach my
gospel tells us to strive to teach families so they can be sealed to
their family forever. I can't wait to teach them! We invited them to
church and they said that they would come sometime!

Sunday morning we had an Aaronic priesthood meeting with the bishop
because Elder Ross hasn't met bishop and he really wanted too. We were
in with the priests and they set up some splits we will go on with the
priests coming soon. We told them that we would tract their brains out
and that it would be fun. I am scared to not be with an experienced
companion because I am not good with door approaches or talking to
people, but I know the Lord will bless me when I open my mouth. Before
and after we had dinner we went and did finding and again no one
interested. One thing I've noticed is that the Lord doesn't bless us
all the time, we have to put in work and have the faith that we will
find someone. Something I struggle with is having the faith that I
will find someone. And lately I have felt as if Heavenly Father
abandoned me and I wasn't having any help but if I think back I see
that he has blessed me a lot. I may not be the best missionary but
over time I will be better.

We have just had a lot of finding time and that has been good but
nothing to crazy happened over these past couple weeks other than just
trying to find people and work hard and have no regrets.

I know that this is the true church of Christ, and that Joseph smith
was a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true. I know that what I am
doing is the lords work and he is guiding me to the people who need to
hear this message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I
love you and I hope you have a great week!

Study Lehis dream in 1 Nephi 8, 11. Also preach my gospel from the
very beginning will help us as members of the church!

Elder Casper