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

A Split and a Successful APF

Hello to all you wonderful people!

This has been a crazy week and there has been soma highlights that I
will talk about! Lately we have been teaching a lot of people and been
seeing success, our weekly planning day which is on Thursday was the
day where we got the least amount of planning done. We had to give our
key to the chapel to one of the senior couples so they could get into
the church to set up for a training meeting that was happening on
Friday. As we were planning Elder Gardner came in and started setting
up for the training and we offered to help.. You know because you
always ask the missionaries. He kind of hinted to us that he would
like help. 5 minutes later we were done setting up and we got back to
planning.. Then a member from the Spanish Ward in new Rochelle came to
the church to have a meeting with the stake president. Let's just say
elder Kuo talks to everyone so we didn't get the chance to finish
planning. We taught a lot of people, same with Friday. We just had
lesson after lesson which is very good because we are doing work and
people had time to meet. I was lucky to see the blessings of working
hard and to see people start progressing. We met with one of our more
progressing investigators Shikha who has been reading the Book of
Mormon and she really enjoys it. We shared the restoration video with
her and she just loved it. The spirit was strong as we were teaching
her but the only problem is she wants to meet like every other week.
Other than that she is doing very good and hopefully her husband will
sit in on the next lesson which is on the plan of salvation!
Saturday was where we finished all of our planning and met with this
super less active guy named Edgar who has been less active since he
was 17 and he is in his 30's. One cool thing about him is he still
listens to general conference when it's available on iTunes. He loves
the council given but he doesn't believe there is one true church, he
believes that we can worship as we want. He loves us though and loves
the church just doesn't want to go to Church. If he went to church he
would feel the spirit and desire to come back to church but he
doesn't. It was a good visit and he lives on the 33rd floor of this
building, there is 35 floors in the building. White Plains is a pretty
big city. Not nearly as big as Manhattan but big.
Sunday was glorious, church is always the best especially on a mission
but I've learned how important church is to me and why we go to
church. I just love being able to relax and feel the spirit and be in
a good environment. This family fed us salmon with bbq sauce and honey
and mustard on top, nice and glazed. Rice and pumpkin bread, salad and
pumpkin pie and strawberry rhubarb pie which was delicious. It made me
think of home and just the fall season which is the best season. This
is the best time of the year.
Monday we had a zone study and training by the APs and interviews by
president. It made it so district meeting didn't have to happen, which
is good because it was poorly prepared because originally we were
going to have 30 minutes to do a quick district meeting. Next week is
zone meeting so we don't have to prepare at all. We learned a lot
about repentance and how we should be continually repenting until we
shouldn't have to anymore. There is no shame in repenting because it
brings you closer to the savior. I felt that power on Monday when I
was with President and I'm having so much more fun now and I'm closer
to the Savior than ever. We had dinner at the smiths which turned out
great and it turns out either grandma Ethington or Casper comments on
our blog and loves seeing pictures of me. By the way the blogs website
is: nynynorthmission.com (see link on this blog)
There you can see pictures of yours truly and everyone else in the
mission and see what is happening. I was on a split Tuesday with elder
Burrell. With our district we went to a college and set up a booth and
everyone was flocking us and people were way interested. It was the
most successful APF I've ever had. We got little Caesars pizza for the
first time in along time. Ate pizza with some tables and chairs on
some random grass. Elder Burrell prayed and our faith made it so the
rain would stop. We were tracting and we found people for the Spanish
elders and sisters. I just love going to work and losing myself. I
don't like wasting time, I love just doing whatever God wants us to
do. I know this gospel is true and I am so grateful for the power of
repentance and what our mission president says is "it's 90 seconds of
humiliation but also 90 seconds of humility." It brings you closer to
the savior and helps us become more in tune with those spiritual
promptings. I love you all and hope you will have the best of weeks!
Talk to you next week!

1 & 2: the building where that less active lives
3: dead Cheerios, get it? She is a cereal killer! Ahah ahah
4: our split picture
5: sometimes you got to take a selfie!

Hello dad,

I am doing well and there has been a ton that has happened this past
week and I'm grateful for what has happened. I got the letters from
the family reunion and they were super great and I love reading those.
  I will have to buy some
more Gillette fusion razor blades, they are just so expensive and I'm
wondering if I should buy those disposable one for way cheap and just
use those? I'm not sure.. If anything gift cards to restaurants but
not even that. You are already giving me the greatest gift I could
ever get. I don't want you guys to have to continue to give money to
me. I'm already grateful for this chance I have to be here on my
mission. I am growing so much and I'm becoming someone that I need to
be.

Thanks for updating my blog, it's nice for people to be able to see
what's been happening on my mission. I don't have too much time to
write every person and the blog helps a lot. Thanks so much dad, love
you so much! I would be grateful to have some people to write. Thanks
Aton dad!

I have a lot of pictures on my hard drive, like a lot and you will be
able to see them all when I come home. Missions are so great and I
need to take more pictures and I've been slacking.


This area is great and everything is going well, I was on a split
yesterday with Elder Burrell again and the coolest thing happened. We
were tracting and it started to drizzle outside and we were like
"whatever let's keep going". We then got to this door and it was
pouring and no one answered so elder Burrell then offers a prayer
asking for the rain to stop so we could continue on in this work. 30
seconds later the rain turns back into a drizzle and we continue and
by the time we are almost done the rain just stops and that was nice.
Our prayer was answered, Heavenly Father knew we were working and he
didn't want us to have to stop, we have faith and we saw our prayers
be answered. Heavenly Father is there, he is a real being and I know
that. He loves us, it's such a comforting thought.

You have probably heard this talk but you should listen to it. "For
the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine" October
1975 General conference by Elder L. Tom Perry. It throws down. If you
have read any cool articles or anything lately, I would love to read
them too. Love ya! I'll get to my weekly email now.


Elder Casper

Testimony Meeting at President Smith's

Hello,

This week has just been grand and there has been lots of stuff happening!

Thursday we just planned and did a bit of finding, we saw one of our
investigators smoking so that was a let down but he is kind of
Schizophrenic. Not much success from tracting.

We planned on Friday with the sisters for an APF with our district and
it is always good coordinating with them to see who they are meeting
with and to know who we need to go see. We had a dinner with the
Laniers and it was amazing and it was a lot of fun! We talked to them
and told them how much we missed them while they were in Utah. It's
great to see a family that comes into the fold of Christ.

Saturday we had an APF and it went well, we found an active member by
accident but his sons aren't active. We had a great conversation. We
also tracted for a bit and we talked into this guy who used to work
with a member and they had tons of conversations about the gospel but
he isn't interested but we planted a seed. We did service in the
morning and we help set up and serve people food. I was in charge of
the juice/Coffee booth and it was mine! Ain't no body gonna touch it.
It was super fun and we got to eat delicious breakfast!

Sunday was church and it was packed and that's such a great feeling. A
non member came to church with his wife(who happened to be pregnant)
and she had the baby on Monday so that was a blessing of coming to
church! Haha. I honestly love church even though it's sometimes
stressful it's just great.

Monday we had district meeting and it was a spiritual experience. We
have had to drive the Spanish elders around so much because there car
is in the shop but they have been getting rides. It's been great
having them to drive them everywhere but yeah. We dropped our
investigator David because he wants to meet with us just to test us
and he isn't progressing.. Non of the members really like him because
like Esmand he is schizophrenic too. He blurts random things out as
well and he reads other versions of the Book of Mormon. We met with
another investigator named Andrew and he is doing good but slowly he
will come to know the truth. He doesn't believe one church has the
truth but he does like talking to us so he can think about what he
really believes. We had to pick up the Spanish elders in Valhalla,
they almost died in the woods but they are fine. They walked through
the pitch black woods.

Tuesday we had our way spiritual experience. We randomly got invited
to go to President and Sister smiths for dinner. There are 2 new
Chinese missionaries that came in and the APs were sick so they
invited us so the new missionaries can have some missionaries to talk
to. We just got to evaluate our missions and where we are at right now
and really see how we have grown. Talking to these new missionaries
was a lot of fun. They are filled with the spirit and ready to be here
and they are well prepared. We got to stay for the testimony meeting
and as soon as one of the sister missionaries bore her testimony I
felt the spirit. It was the strongest I've ever felt the spirit in my
life. Then the elder bore his testimony and the spirit was still way
strong. Then sister Vassau bore her testimony and I felt the spirit
and then when I realized I wanted to go next I felt fear but as I got
up the spirit hit me again. I won the devil trying to persuade me to
not bare my testimony but I did and it felt so great and it was a
powerful testimony. It was a cool experience to see where I am now and
how much my testimony has grown since I have first been out. I have
another year to let my testimony grow. I'm going to make the best of
it! I love the spirit and without it I can teach nothing, I need that
spirit so the people I teach will be able to access that spirit. The
spirit is the converter, the teacher. It's what brings things to our
remembrance, and comforts us. I love this gospel and I'm grateful for
the hard days and the wonderful experiences I've been having.

Oh today we went apple picking, and a member from Poughkeepsie took
us. I want to serve in Poughkeepsie! Anyways! Love you all and hope
you have a great week! I'll send some pictures soon! As we drove from
Poughkeepsie down to Scarsdale, we drove in New Jersey so yeah we were
out of the mission for about an hour. We drove across the tappan zee
bridge! We live in Elmsford so that's right near the bridge.. But I
was out of the mission for a bit today! It's my first time outside the
mission but we didn't know until we were crossing the bridge.

Elder Casper

Staying with Elder Kuo

Hello world, as you can see by my subject title, I'm staying with
elder Kuo for another 6 weeks and I'm bitter sweet about it. I love
him but it would have been nice to get someone else but the lord needs
us together at this time in our lives. I'm still District Leader so
that's fun. It's pretty stressful to be honest.

Thursday we planned for 5 hours and that was painful, it rained
hardcore and yeah like it was terrible and I could barely see and I
was driving. On the Bronx River parkway which is the narrowest parkway
in the county and everyone drives quickly ah I thought I was gonna
die.

Friday we did some Tracting for the first time in a while and it felt
so great to go knock the doors and see people interested. We knocked
the door of this catholic lady who was very nice and we testified of
the restoration and how it truly did happen. Her heart is being
softened and that's a testimony builder. We also saw our investigator
named Shikha who is progressing slightly but after we taught her the
restoration and we were done with everything she asked us if we could
come every other week. I'm really hoping that she will progress and
she will read the Book of Mormon and feel the spirit. Hopefully her
husband will be interested soon, he sits around and doesn't listen to
us. We went to go see one of our less actives because he has been
becoming active again but when we got there he was doing crack and
smoking and he didn't come to church on Sunday!  we did meet with
him Saturday and we told him to talk to bishop, repentance is real.

Saturday we helped the Yonkers elders with an APF and did a lot of
lookups and Tracting and had a great dinner with the Treus in our
Ward. It was Sister Gardners birthday so they made a cake for her. We
had a great day and got a new investigator for the Yonkers elders.
They played a musical number for us and the spirit was so strong, It
felt great. We got transfer calls and I'm glad I'm staying. We are
gonna get a baptism this cycle!

Sunday we looked up a part member, less active family and she has
doctor who toys and stuff so I nerded out over those. They are amazing
and it was so fun to be there and feel the spirit in her home. We want
to work with part member families and try to help the family become
members so they can be sealed for ever in the temple. Asking for
referrals as well!

Monday was the last district meeting of this cycle and I'm grateful
that I was able to learn so much and have a good cycle. We saw a
recent convert named John, he has gone through some hard times but he
will come back to church now. He hasn't been for 2 weeks. We saw an
investigator with a member and we testified about the Book of Mormon
and our member shoots us a text telling us how great we did. We had
dinner at the tanos and it was a good way to end the night.

Tuesday we did a lot of part member look ups and tracted. Even though
we really didn't see any success and no one was interested. The lord
sent us there to plant seeds and for us to learn and to share the
gospel with everyone. We could of had a ton of success but sometimes
you don't see success and you just have to put forth effort. Also we
had dinner at a part member family's house. The husband isn't a member
and he is slowly becoming comfortable with the church. He is doing a
lot of renovation and we want to help. I love doing it because dad
gave me a love for a lot of the things he needs help with. I'm so
grateful.

I love this gospel and I know it's true. As a mission we have been
reading the Book of Mormon together and we have been able to feel the
spirit of the book. I invite you all as a family to read the Book of
Mormon and to see how your life changes. The book changes lives and
I've seen that. I hope you all have a great week and don't forget
about me!  love you!

I'm the doctor!
Also I know where batman lives!

First Leadership Council as District Leader

Hello dear family and friends and even best friends!

This week has been awesome and it has been full of good times and
spiritual uplifting experiences. This Last Friday district leaders
were invited to attend MLC and it was all on obedience and
consecration and following the spirit. It was pretty much ago not
being casual and to be obedient to the rules that we have and the
direction we have received from president Smith. I'm grateful to learn
so much and to feel the spirit. The spirit was present the whole time
and I hope I can go to every MLC one day because they are like
receiving direct revelation from the source and not through our
leaders. It was a great experience, I also saw a lot of missionaries
that I've served around and it was amazing.

Saturday we did some service for this members friend and we brought
the army along with us, we brought the other 2 elders in our district,
because the person we did service for lived in that area. She is
interested in learning more about the restored gospel. Sunday we went
to church and it was a great day. Before church I wanted to go finding
and Elder Kuo didn't really want to so we started knocking doors and
no one was home and elder Kuo made the comment "I feel like finding on
a Sunday morning isn't that effective." And as soon as he says that
the door swings open and this guy who really didn't seem to interested
answered and talked to us for a bit. He didn't want to hear anything
but then his wife passed by and she said she would be interested in
watching the because he lives video and we showed it and then briefly
described the restoration and they told us we could come back so
hopefully we will see some success.

Monday was zone meeting and it was all on obedience and how important
it is and how we need to make it a priority and commit to it. Then we
cleaned our car, had Taco Bell and went to Yonkers so I could
interview this guy for baptism. His name is Mike and he gave me a tie,
he passed his interview.. He will be baptized in Utah and it was
really cool. He has seen how the gospel has changed his life. That was
a very cool experience and I love the spirit I felt. We cleaned our
car and did service for the Petersens and we had a good time with
them.

Tuesday we had car inspections, we ate, did some finding and look ups,
ate dinner and went to say goodbye to Miguel Lanier who is going to
college so we said good bye. Then we headed to a  guy we have been
teaching and the other day we found out that the Spanish Elders were
teaching him also. So we all went to him and asked him straight up if
he wants to be taught in Spanish or English, he chose English.. Yay
for us! We had to make an emergency stop to Walmart for some
supplies.. Anyways that was our night.

This morning we decided to go to Newtown again to play some sports and
to say hey to some people. I saw Johnny this morning and that really
made my day. It took an hour to drive from Elmsford (where we live) to
Bethel (Where I used to live). I didn't even use a GPS once when I got
here because I knew where I was headed. This has been a great day and
I'm so excited to be here. I love it so much and I miss Newtown but
hopefully I'll be back one day after the mission.

1. California selfie.. We are both from California
2 & 3. Newtown Chapel
4. Miguel and Elder Kuo and I

Dad,

Thanks, I can't wait for the car package! I haven't gotten mail for so
long! I'm so excited to get letters! if you sent it today or tomorrow
I could go pick it up at the mission office whenever we are near.
 Tell them that I said BYU Idaho is the
best!
Our area is doing super good, one thing we have noticed is we have a
lot of eternalgators, investigators who meet with us but aren't
progressing at all. We are going to spend a lot more time focusing on
finding new people and then teaching them and coming back and meeting
with them so they can progress towards baptism. I still haven't had my
own baptism yet on my whole mission and I would love to help someone
make that covenant. There isn't too much craziness going on in the
area... Transfers is coming up and trainer calls are tonight and
Saturday is transfer calls. We have this lady whose name is Shikha and
she has been studying with the JWs for a while but she wants to get
something out of our religion. Time flies on the mission and I've been
having a lot of fun and I hope that we will work hard and find new
people to teach!

I love you and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Elder Casper

Split with Missionary Elder White from Folsom

Hello and welcome to this letter!

This week has been great and yesterday has been full of miracles that
I will talk about! I'm so grateful for this week and for the time that
I've had to be in this area and learn what I've learned.

Last Thursday I don't really remember what happened other than weekly
planning and some other things!

Friday morning we went to the Scarsdale chapel as a zone and cleaned
the entire chapel, it only took an hour and don't worry there was
food, delicious New York pizza. We got our planning mostly done and
then we went to see an investigator named Shikha and she is very
receptive. Her husband wants us to come to have a study but we taught
her about the Book of Mormon and turns out she has been studying with
the Jehovah's for a while, approximately 3 years! She wants to know
what she can get out of what we share and we told her she will come
closer to Christ. She is excited to read the book. We then went to a
Happiness group with our investigator and 2 of our members. They were
stunned and traumatized of the experience. Our investigator David
throws this group and we attend. We are supposed to talk about things
that make us happy but David always turns it on us and we taught the
entire group so that was sweet.

Saturday we helped with some service from one of our members, we
shoved 2 huge couches down her stair and we were in our proselyting
clothes and we were just covered in sweat. We then had an area
proselyting focus where we found one of our less actives named Cord
and then this Drunk dude named Abraham. Abraham was interesting but he
is interested in learning more. There is a member in the Spanish
branch who took us out with the Spanish elders to a place called
headless horsemen. We then proceeded to eat 2 pizzas and when we
thought we were done he order another pizza. It was Hawaiian and I ate
it because he got it for us. I ate so much pizza and then a chocolate
Oreo milkshake. We had to help with more service afterwards, we
brought them Spanish guys with us and we had to bring a couch up to
her apartment.. It was pretty fantastic. We got home at 11:30 that
night... Yep.

Sunday was good, we taught primary and the kids are so crazy. One of
our less actives came to church and he says he will be at church from
now on! We dropped Doug, we saw another one of our less actives and
really got him thinking about why he was baptized. Had dinner with a
member and then finished out with numbers... Yeah for being district
leader.... Haha.

Monday we had district meeting and then we had to go finish putting
that couch in her apartment and eventually we got it after along time.
We ate some broken Lasagna, it's what it sounds like. Lasagna that is
not like lasagna, it's noodles scattered with some pesto sauce, it's
super good. A member from Utah showed up at our chapel before our
split and we gave him a chapel tour.

Tuesday I had a split with Elder white from Folsom California! We went
to New Rochelle and it was legit! We had a bomb day! I learned how to
say a prayer in Spanish. I sat through some Spanish lessons and elder
white would translate for me. We taught the plan of salvation to this
guy and he really was happy and excited that God gave us this plan. We
did a lot of finding and saw miracles. We were standing at this corner
and we weren't sure if we should cross the street so we waited for a
second and this guy from Georgia pulls up and wants our address to our
church. He was telling us that he isn't a member but he participated
at our church over there and wants to come to ours over here. That was
a confirmation that we were meant to be there and that the lord wanted
us to know that. We kept tracting and we ran into this guy from Poland
who understood what we were talking about. We talked about the
restoration but he said he may be interested one day. Then we met this
Mexican family and they were nice, said we could come back. Then we
went to Taco Bell and got a Baja Blast Mountain Dew freeze which was
delicious! Went home and stole some cheese from the Assistant
Presidents (Because they live in the same apartment building). We went
and found after dinner and ran into these ladies who were nice and we
talked for a while, I said a prayer for one of them. That's what it's
like in cities, you pray all the time. Found a couple people. It was a
good way to end the night. We took a split picture! That's how my week
was.

I know the lord knows what he is doing. We may not know we chose to
tract this street but the lord is directing us to people who are ready
to receive this message. If we didn't stop at that corner or choose to
not tract the whole street we wouldn't of found Carlos, he called
immediately after he drove off. I love this church and I know it's
true and you can grow so much by reading your scriptures, praying and
going to church. This is the best church on earth! I love you all!
Have a great week!

1 & 2: Zone Conference Pictures
3: New Rochelle View (City View in the distance)
4: Split Picture! Elder White is in the back

Momma!

I can't believe it's September too... Like what happened? I still haven't missed a day! I can't wait to try a lot of these dishes! New York is still hot and humid as ever! I'll take pictures when leaves start to change! New York is so beautiful! Transfers is 2 weeks from today!

Wow Brandi and Amrin are helping with the mud run? That's pretty cool! Hopefully it rains!

Don't worry about sending a box too quickly but I definitely want socks,  I'm coming up on my year mark in a couple months... It's crazy.. Anyways feel free to send whatever! Have a great week mom! Love you! I'm not sure what else to say! Ahaha but I love both of you!

Elder Casper

Zone Conference and Service

Hello once again, welcome to another episode of what's been happening
in Elder Caspers life, hope you enjoy!

This week has been crazy and chaotic and just full of wonderful
experiences! As you can see we had our first zone conference with
president Smith! It was very uplifting and the spirit that I felt
there was magical! Thursday morning we had to go to the Scarsdale
chapel so we could get a ride down to Kingsbridge in the Bronx. We
were supposed to be at the church at 7:15 and then leave right then
but we did leave until 7:45. We got to the Bronx and had some Bagels
and cream cheese for breakfast, not just any ordinary cream cheese! It
was chocolate Chip cream cheese. I know how to make it, and I will for
you all when I get home! The meeting went great, we learned a lot
about the Book of Mormon and how it is the sickle that we have, it's
the tool to harvest. But the spirit is the blade, and without the
blade you won't be harvesting anything. We did some role plays and
learned about online proselyting and just how we can be Ward builders.
I learned so much and had such a fantastic time! It made us all want
to go to work.

Friday and Saturday and Tuesday has been a lot of service, like so
much service with this one member family who is renovating their
apartment and wanted our help. There is no way they could have done
what we did without us, it was just a great opportunity to gain the
trust of them and to help out in any way we can. It reminded me of
helping with dad at home. I got to use the knowledge that I learned
with wood and what tools are called. I just felt like such a little
kid again and I was able to help a lot with what we were doing! I am
grateful for all that I've learned by helping dad with so many things.

Saturday we helped the Spanish elders prepare for their baptism, but
they needed us to go buy some food for the baptism at Walmart. We had
no idea we were going into a prison when we went into Walmart, there
were so many cars in the parking garage! It's ridiculous! But we
brought all the food we got for them to the baptism. Their
investigator at first didn't want anyone but the day before the
baptism he wanted as many people as possible. We planned for our week
the rest of the night.

Sunday we had a great time at church, we helped in primary and had a
fun and successful time in there. We had a dinner with this family
that is just so fun to be at. They invited us over last minute but we
had some Japanese curry which tastes delicious! I want to learn how to
make it. After that it was the end of the night. Monday was district
meeting and a lot of crazy things going on and some time to tract in
Scarsdale. We found a new potential that we will try to look up in the
future.

On Tuesday we brought a youth out with us and we had a good time
teaching people with him! That's pretty much all that this week has
been. It's been going by slow and fast at the same time.  Lately it's
been hard remembering what has happened every day but I wrote it all
down in my journal. I still haven't missed a day! Anyways I love you
all, have a great week!

1. A random picture we took at the church
2. I got some Elvis stamps
3. The Spanish branches baptism! Look how white we are!


Dad, it sounds like you guys had a busy week!

I love BYU Idaho and I can't wait to go back after my mission.
 It's always good to be able to see all
the family and everyone. I wish I could have been there but I'll get
to go to one some other time.

I'm really hoping that California just gets drenched in snow and
rain!! It's really messed up that California doesn't gets moisture and
then over here, we get hit randomly.

It must be weird to not have kids that go to school anymore, well high
school. I can't believe we are all done with school, I used to think
it would never end!

The area has been good, this past week we haven't had much time to
find, it's been so crazy and chaotic with Zone Conference and all. But
everything is mostly normal! Thanks for the advice dad, it's been hard
to work with Elder Kuo but in 3 more Wednesday's I may have a new
companion because elder Kuo is a china town missionary. I'm kind of
hoping that but I'm trying my hardest to serve him in every possible
way but it's been hard. He gets mad at a lot of things that are dumb
and that's usually when I don't argue and I just chill down and then
he always apologizes. I really do love hearing about your mission! Did
you serve for 24 months? (Yes) Anyways I am glad I have you in my life dad,
you have been such an example to me! We did a lot of service this
weekend with this one member and I used a skill you have taught me.
Wood working! We were cutting and screwing boards around a window and
caulking it! I can't wait to work on things like that after my
mission! Anyways it really excited me because I knew what everything
was called and I knew the terms he was saying.. Elder Kuo didn't know
what he was doing but I did for once!

I know these trials and hard times are for me to grow and become
better. Thank you so much dad!