Driving in Manhattan twice already

Hello to all people who are interested in reading about my week! This
has been a pretty crazy week as you can tell by my subject but I'll
talk about that soon. We've had a good week and we were blessed to
hear from president smith at the zone conferences because we were
lucky to help.

Thursday we were in Manhattan at the Lincoln center chapel and Friday
we were in Yorktown over in Ossining. The zone conferences were so
kick butt. I didn't realize how expensive parking in Manhattan was.
Like 3 hours in one garage was $42 and 2 hours in another is $54..
Like holy crap that is crazy and we had to pay for the parking. We get
reimbursed so that's good because I don't think I can live off exactly
0 dollars and 60 cents.. That's totally crazy. But Friday we had to
drive over to Newburgh to drop off all of a sister missionaries stuff
she left in Chinatown that has been in our way all the time. Elder
Dutson got my sickness and he felt like crap the whole day and I have
been getting slightly sicker.

Saturday I got to do the mail route! It was my first time driving in
the city and I got to drive to Olmstead, then Kingsbridge, then
Inwood, then Harlem, the the 87th street chapel, then the 14th street
chapel, then to Chinatown. Then we get on the Henry Hudson and take
that all the way up to the cross county to the Bronx River parkway and
then to the mission office again. It is super long and we get to see
some of the missionaries in the mission. It was fun driving in the
city, it's not even scary and it's way easy, I'll be able to drive
when and if we come back after my mission. We got to bed early because
we were both aching and feeling crappy.

Sunday I had my first Ward council in this area, and had a good
sacrament meeting and church in general. Elder Dutson slept for 3
hours after church and got to heal a bit. I got to do my studies,
write in my journal, and shine my shoes (for the first time in a
while). We had a super amazing dinner with a spiritual lesson
afterwards. It was like WAY good!

Monday we had district meeting and we talked about the importance of
planning and setting goals. It was amazing! So one of the senior
couples took us to Smash Burger to thank us for helping with all the
zone conferences. We did some service for this lady named Jean Gruss.
We climbed on a ladder and cleaned her gutters..(luckily I've had some
practice with brother Waterlyn) but I climbed this ladder that was
barely touching the gutter and then climbed all the way up onto the
flat roof. I was scared for my life because this ladder was a cheaper
quality ladder. Anyway I feared for my life but good news... I'm still
alive! Don't worry.. Won't be doing that again anytime soon. We had to
fill orders that night.

Tuesday we did the mail run again and it took us forevskis to do it
all. Traffic for days and mucho the cars. I love driving in the city,
it's a quick way to get around too.. As long as you avoid the busier
streets, 2nd avenue is the way we always take and we get going quick.
You really get good at cutting people off.. I've also learned that I
have quite the road rage in the city. My patience has been tested and
it's been failing me. People irritate me because no one knows how to
even drive. I swear. We also get good at Bronx Parking which is when
you pull up next to a row of parked cars in the middle of traffic and
turn your hazards on and wait. People do that throughout the whole
city. You have to merge all the time because people Bronx park in the
most inconvenient spot.

I love this church and I love being a missionary. I've seen so many
blessings and I've done so much this past year and I've grown so much
and I have a lot of growing left to do. We will see where I am in a
year. I want to be more deeply rooted in the gospel and be able to
focus on what's really important in this gospel. I love you all and
hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Casper