last time talking to my parents on my mission. Tomorrow I hit my 18
Month mark, it still blows my mind how fast time is moving but I'm
gonna work hard for the next 6 months, I'll give my all so I don't
feel like I wasted time. This week has been crazy awesome, there has
been a lot of things going on.
Wednesday we finished out our night tracting some project buildings
and talked to some really cool people that we hope we will be able to
teach. It was fun, I love tracting!
Thursday we had weekly planning, we did some street contacting that
night at Washington square park which is the park on New York
University, we talked to a lot of people. I said hello to this guy and
he was like "what, you want weed? What do you want?" And I was just
like "no, just wanted to say hi and have a good day". That was
interesting in itself but then we talked to this gal and she told us
she was gonna check out our church next week. Then that same guy came
over to us and her and told her to start selling weed. Regardless she
was cool and they were cussing each other out so we were just like
okay, have a good one. Bye. Awkward. Funny stories you have on your
mission.
Friday we waited for our landlord who never came to come fix our sink,
we left at about 1:30 and decided to do some street contacting on 6th
avenue. We talked to this guy who asked us about what happened to the
part of Jesus that was circumcised, but we got to testify of God and I
even got to use something from my studies that morning in Mosiah 4:9
about believing in God and that he created both the heavens and the
earth. We talked to a lady who was older but knew about our church. We
also talked to this Chinese girl who thought that south was east, and
east was south.. Yeah we explained where she wanted to go and it made
sense and she left. We had a Mother's Day APF in the union square
subway station. A lot of people saw our sign and took pictures with
it. It's funny because as soon as we are ready to leave, that's when
everyone comes and wants pictures. It's super funny. We talked to a
lot of of really cool people! Even this guy who knew who Joseph smith
was and he was yelling how he loves Joseph smith. This other guy also
yelled at us and called us children of Satan and how we are Satan
worshippers. It's like "dude, you don't even know.. Last time I
checked we worship our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.. I mean it is
the church of JESUS CHRIST". We did some street contacting in the
financial district to finish the night.
Saturday we went to do some service at the village temple, we cut some
celery and carrots and I washed the dishes. Since I have been on my
mission I really love washing dishes. It calms me. I dislike when
people call us by our first names, hello my name is elder Casper.. I
don't like hearing my first name in person. Only because I'm a
missionary. Afterwards we went to the church and there we talked to
the ASL missionaries for a little bit, and there was an alarm going
off downstairs and we didn't know the password, after falling some
people to try to figure it out, one of the elders went over to it and
started guessing from 0000, to 9999, to 8888 all the way down and it
turns out the password was 1111.. Haha. The ASL missionaries from the
south mission come to the 15th street chapel for church and
activities. It's always weird to see them in our mission.. It's
awkward to talk with them because they are foreign to us and we know
from whence they came. We tried to street contact on the Brooklyn
bridge, that didn't work. They are all tourists. This random girl
screamed Elders! It was a group of friends who are going to school at
BYU but doing a semester in New York. They took a picture of us,
probably put it on snapchat. We went to Columbus circle after dinner
to do more Mother's Day stuff, this guy called us Satan Worshipers,
but he was kidding. He is American Indians, a Lamanite by chance? We
talked for a while with him and he really had a good conversation with
us. We talked to some cool people, a lot of people got pictures. We
ran into some members. This one member gave us an idea. Have a piece
of paper with these 2 statements. I'll join the Mormon church. And I
don't love my mom enough to live with her for eternity. We would
probably have a lot of new investigators.
Sunday was awesome, it started out pouring in the morning but by the
time church was over the sun was out and it was beautiful! Yun came to
church and Danny went to the Chinatown branch because he rides a bike,
and it was raining in the morning. He lives right next to the
Chinatown chapel. I felt the spirit so strong while I took the
sacrament, I am trying to make my sacrament meetings more spiritual.
Honestly I am grateful for the burden that was lifted off of me, all
the guilt that had been lifted off of me. I want to be better and I
strive to be better everyday, repent daily. A member Invited us over
for a Sunday dinner because she wanted us to have dinner on that day.
We had a wonderful time with them. Then I got to talk to my parents, I
seriously love my mom and dad and am so grateful for them. Everyone,
love your moms! They are the greatest and listen to them. You can
watch the Mother's Day video on LDS.org, check it out.
Monday we had district meeting and we talked about how we can be
better. We need more accountability and we set goals and made plans.
We are gonna have a great APF with the big Book of Mormon sign, it's
gonna be fantastic. I love this district, we are all in tough areas
but it's amazing to see success. We have had a tough time but I know
that we will see miracles. Our area is a lot of tourists and people
have hardened their hearts. We had a pass of lesson with Danny, the
plan of salvation was taught by the other elders and it made sense to
him. I seriously love Danny and he has been learning a lot about the
gospel and is loving it. He is changing the way he is living which has
been incredible. That night we had Dinner with the Howells, brother
Howell told us he was in a bad mood. He also talked about how he had
nightmares about his mission. It was crazy over there, they are a cool
family. Love em. We did street contacting afterwards, talked to some
people so that was cool.
Tuesday was cool, we planned to go street contacting on one of the
piers, but the zone leaders called and asked us if we would like to go
do an APF with them in Central Park. We did and it was super fun! We
tasked to a lot of people and even taught the restoration to them. So
many members came to put where they are from on the huge board. A
member family came over, their daughter returned home from the south
mission a year ago. It was cool to talk with them. The sound of the
world caused everyone to stop coming over to us. There were people
doing this street performance near us so the sound of the world, the
great and spacious building.. Haha. We carried the board back to the
temple 65th and Lincoln center building. It was awesome. We had some
look ups, then dinner at our apartment. We went to the top of battery
park and talked to this guy named Bryan. To say the least, he is an
interesting fellow. He taught us about the history of battery park and
it was legit. We gave him a Book of Mormon and by the time we were
done talking with him it was time to go home. We walked back, it was
totally fun. It's not that far of a walk when you walk like a
missionary does, "walk quickly and with purpose".
Today is a pretty chill Pday, going to the Chinatown chapel for elder
Casela to get his hair cut by Jay. We will go shopping later, buy a 20
pound bag of rice. We go through rice way too quick.. 2 weeks we are
already done with a 20 pound bag. Wow. So quickly! I love rice.
"How else can we increase our power in the priesthood? We need to pray
from our hearts. Polite recitations of past and upcoming activities,
punctuated with some requests for blessings, cannot constitute the
kind of communing with God that brings enduring power. Are you willing
to pray to know how to pray for more power? The Lord will teach you."
(The Price of Priesthood Power by Russell M Nelson) I love this quote,
the talk itself is amazing, I've been reading it over and over again.
I would invite you to read this to learn how we can have more
priesthood power.
Love,
Elder Casper
1. The temple
2. The Empire State Building
3. Brooklyn Bridge view
4. Mothers Day APF in Columbus Circle
No comments:
Post a Comment