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Elder & Sister Smith

Elder & Sister Smith
Elder Casper With Elder & Sister Smith (July 2015-July 2018)

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New York New York North Mission
700 White Plains Road Ste 315
Scarsdale, NY 10583


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Elder Domenick Casper

Elder Domenick Casper
Elder Casper With Elder & Sister Morgan (July 2012-July 2015)

Thursday, May 12, 2016

General Conference and Happy Birthday!

Hello, before I say anything I just want to say how bipolar the weather here in New York is. One day it's pooping hot and then the next it's like Antarctica and then the next it's snowing and raining and just freezing cold winds blowing at us. Anyways it was terrible in the sense that the weather here just doesn't know what it's doing. Yep, and yes I did have a fantastic birthday, I'm now 21 so that's like super weird but it was good to be able to watch conference and to receive revelation on what I need to do with my life after the mission. I don't know if it actually spoke a lot about it but I felt like it was talking a lot about marriage, and being a father and in general just being a parent and not putting off marriage after the mission. I guess that's what the spirit was telling me.

Thursday we did the same old, coordination with Michael and then did weekly planning and then some referral looks. Elder Clarks metro card was expired so we did a lot of walking. Did a look up of this lady whose name is Brenda and it turns out her parents referred her to the church because they are members but she is not, she isn't interested but one day! We walked more and I got to practice my Spanish to a recent convert who moved from Oklahoma. We tracted in that building and this one guy from the other side of the door said "not interested, back away from the door, don't knock again, I'm calling the cops to come remove you". Anyways we just kept knocking doors. We have our ministerial certificate, the cops will just tell us to leave. Haha.

Friday was a hot day, we tested the weather by sticking our hand out the window and it felt cold and it looked like it was gonna rain. We wore our huge jackets to go look up this referral named Kenrick, who we just got in coop city. We went there and looked him up and it turns out he just referred himself that morning and the lady on the phone told him that he should be expecting 2 missionaries to come by and probably sit down and talk abit. He let us in and we shared some of the restoration with him. He loved it and he has a grandson in California who helped him be a little more interested. When we went outside afterwards it was way hot. We went to the 12 bus and we met a member who lives in the Kingsbridge ward. We talked the entire way back. He is a cool kid. He joined because he wanted to have a better life. That's exactly what the gospel brings! A better life! We dropped our big jackets off and went to see Gabriel Claudio who told us that he would want to come to all 3 sessions of General conference on Saturday, priesthood session included. Too bad he didn't come. We helped with cub scouts and we helped make the pinewood derby cars and paint them.. It was fun in a white shirt, I didn't get anything on my shirt though.. It was fun to help those kids.

Saturday we went to see our less active, Francis. He is doing awesome and we always brighten his day. It was raining pretty hard. We went to see general conference and I loved it. It was so much fun. President Eyring started off conference so perfectly. The spirit was so strong. All the talks were amazing! Elder Bednar's talk was good but I really loved elder M Russell Ballards who talks about family councils and those are inspired. I loved this quote "Now, brothers and sisters, there was a time when the walls of our homes provided all the defense we needed against outside intrusions and influences. We locked the doors, closed the windows; we shut the gates; and we felt safe, secure, and protected in our own little refuge from the outside world.

Those days are now gone. The physical walls, doors, fences, and gates of our homes cannot prevent unseen invasion from the Internet, the Wi-Fi, the mobile phones, the networks. They can penetrate our homes with just a few clicks and keystrokes." That hit me, that's council from our leaders in what we need to be doing in order to live a safe life, to have our own little refuge from the outside world. The priesthood session was my favorite. There was a lot of marriage talk and how priesthood holders should be better to their wives. I loved president Uchtdorf's quote "My beloved brethren, may I remind you, if there were a perfect woman, do you really think she would be that interested in you?" I loved how he talked about how can save our marriages and how we can have a successful marriage. It was so good! It was good to hear the prophet speak too, it was so short but meaningful.

Sunday I woke up dead tired but I rolled slash jumped out of bed because I'm on the top bunk. It didn't feel like I was 21, I still feel like the same old kid who entered the MTC at 19 and now it's almost 17 months later and I feel like the mission has changed me a lot. When I go home I'll be a completely different person. It's super cool. General conference was fantastic. Jeffrey R Holland ended it so amazing. Here is his quote "Satan wants people to not progress. Why does he do that? Because he never can progress. He wants us to be miserable too.. Don't listen to that. We can improve. The great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying.. Even if we don't succeed. If God were to reward the perfectly faithful, he wouldn't have much of a distribution list". We can all improve and become better and try to be better. Don't listen to Satan, it's true, he cannot progress but we can! It was so good to finally get out and do some work for a couple hours. It was freezing, we didn't dress appropriately for cold weather but we went out anyways and did work.

Monday was fantastic as well. We had Zone Meeting and we set a goal of teaching 568 lessons in the month of April. We set goals for every key indicator for this month. We are all so pumped up! It was a great day. We did go see Sister Archibald like usual, and John Cofie. He had to get up to use the restroom and as he was walking out of the bathroom, he said "By the Grace of God, I'm walking.. Have faith." Haha it was funny. He's a good guy. That's his saying for every answer "By the Grace of God." We looked up this Lady named Brilludene and she is super cool. She wants to come to church. Let's hope she doesn't get lazy on Sunday. Something I've thought about recently is as a kid we are told to never talk to strangers or go into random peoples houses. That's exactly what we do as missionaries, talk to strangers and go into random peoples houses. It's funny. We looked up some people that night. It rained all day. This bible basher started talking to us and he told us how Jesus was black and he proved it using Songs of Solomon.. Yeah we just said have a great day and walked away. We decided to stop by Donna and she answered! Hallelujah, she is alive and well and she wants us to come by hopefully this week! She misses us and we told her how much we missed them. It's gonna be dope sauce.

Tuesday we were supposed to meet with Kenrick but he canceled on us. We were asked to go get the mail from the office elders. Then we went to City island and had a wonderful time tracting and talking to people. We didn't see much success but it was super fun. We tried talking to people, no one is interested but there is some good potential on that island. It was pretty cool. We then had to go to the church to copy elder Clarks license for elder Garnder. We walked a ton, like 2 or 3 Miles on city island and the same for the rest of the day. We walked so much. And we didn't see too much success but we really tried. I love talking to people, you never know who you will talk to. We were so tired, my left heel has been killing me. When I rolled out of bed this morning I was limping hard core but it's better now. Stupid planter fasciitis. Anyways sleep last night was good, Ta bien (Dominican Slang for its good).

I love this work, I know I'm supposed to be here to find those who are prepared to hear the restored gospel. 7 months left, I'm working hard. I don't know how I've been out for this long but soon I'll have a couple cycles left. I love you all and am grateful for your love and support.
Love,
Elder Domenick Casper

1. Helping at cub scouts.
2. Selfie with the church.
3. These ads are all over the subways.
4. We found this in our apartment, look at the little piece of ramen next to it..Grateful it was dead.
5 & 6. City island view of Manhattan! And Queens.
7. 9/11 memorial painting graffiti art. It's dope.
8. Georges Diner, all us missionaries eat there pretty often. The owner loves us and gives us free Drinks and unlimited refills! It's good! And affordable.








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