went, I don't even want to know how fast July goes! How crazy is this.
The mission literally flies by, it's too crazy and it's not a good
feeling to know that my mission is coming to a close. Anyways I have
loads of time left so no need to worry!
Last Wednesday we got our hairs cut so that was nice, I look better
than ever! Haha as always, just kidding.. But I think I look handsome,
I don't know maybe it's because I see myself daily, I don't know. It
went a little over and our appointment with Kevin got pushed to
Thursday.
Thursday we had weekly planning and we felt to text a bunch of members
to ask how they were doing and to see if we could do anything for
them. This led to us having a lot of members offering to come with us
to teach people. It was wonderful though, I also found elder Casela
doesn't really like me all that much, which is fine. We still get
along but it's just we aren't best buds. Sometimes you have companions
like that, but the wish is to have a companion who you get along with
super well and then they become like your bestest friend. That's what
I want. Anyways we went and saw Kevin, but he wasn't there, he went to
the store Zumies, and we went there and it turns out he just got home
right as we got to Zumies. We got to go talk with him and right now he
is super humble, he really wants the gospel and he notices the change
the gospel brings. Whenever him and his girlfriend (Sauce, who is a
member) get into a fight, he will read the Book of Mormon to calm
himself down, they will read it together. That is powerful because it
is true that as you read the Book of Mormon you can calm down. He
remembers quite a bit but it will be a while when he will be baptized.
Whenever we think he's ready, he is getting there but he isn't there
yet. It will probably be August, it depends on if he will move out of
Sauces apartment. We then headed to the Calders for dinner where
brother Calder showed us his newest video for his company. If you
search Anson Calder you can find it, he has a super sweet wallet and a
new bag that he is coming out with. Anyways I absolutely love their
family, it's cool to see their little family and how crazy everything
is. I love it.
Friday we get a phone call from a fellow who found the Chinatown
missionaries and they gave him our information. He told us he was at
the church, we told him we could be there in half an hour. We booked
it there and gave him a church tour. He really liked our church, we
then taught him the restoration and he just believed everything we
said. He loves it and then we told him about President Monson and his
recent conference address about choices and we said the quote "May we
choose the harder right than the easier wrong." He told us that's what
the other elders talked to him about. He has always made good choices
and he told us the world has hated him for it. He is on a search and
wants to learn about the gospel. He has been reading the Book of
Mormon and had lived it. It's wonderful, miracles! We also talked to a
less active from Florida named Rafael. Cool dude, we gave him a new
Book of Mormon since his was worn out. We also taught Carlos and he
asked us if we could choose the church or the teachings of the Book of
Mormon, what would we choose? We told him that the teachings are the
church. It was a long conversation but a good one. We taught Albert
too that night with our bishop and Brother Hyde. We got a lot of input
this time as we taught and we covered everything. The spirit was
strong. Albert also got emotional thinking of his grandma dying and
that's the beauty of the plan of salvation.
Saturday morning we did some service, this time we talked to a lot of
people and they know who we are now. I talked to this lady who grew up
in Auburn! She asked if I have ever been to the Lincoln Logs and I
told her I live in Lincoln so I see those logs like every day. It was
cool. We also talked to this guy named Dave, I talked for like 15
minutes about the mission and what we do, he thought it was
incredible. He wasn't interested sadly, but it was a good talk.
Afterwards we went up to Harlem to do an APF, we were gonna tract some
Columbia university housing but a security guard kicked us out. So
yeah we headed all the way back down and did some tracting. We also
went to look up a dude named Tony who we were gonna teach with the
Spanish elders but he said it was a bad time and told us to come back
around 6:30, so we did. We ended up going to his apartment and we went
to the door and no luck but as the other elders were leaving elder
Casela looked over and saw him sitting on the bench so we went to the
other elders and told them and they had a sweet lesson with him! We
did so much tracting that day. Not too much luck though!
Sunday we had a great turn out at church, we had Albert, Yun, Reggie
and Kevin all come to church. I love 3 hours of church, it really was
awesome. I just love the spirit that you can feel and all the things
we are able to do at church. Really I hope all you love 3 hours too.
It is only a spiritual experience if you make it a spiritual
experience. Kevin flaked out on us after but we talked to a ton of
members who want to feed us! Yay! we love it. Sunday was national
gay pride day or something like that, our church is located in the gay
part of New York and I got checked out way to much by all the gay guys
out. They were everywhere! Crowds all over our area so we couldn't do
much. I felt so uncomfortable, it was no good. It wasn't effective
because no one would listed because they know our church. Yeah. We
were getting stared down, I saw too many things I wish I could Unsee.
Anyways.. Yeah everything was gross, I didn't want to see that.
Everyone said that in Chelsea (the area where the church is located)
it's "Adam and Steve". Also if you remember Lee Samedy (the one who we
taught the doctrine of Christ too) well yeah he went to church with
the Manhattan YSA and he has a baptismal date for July 30th. We will
see what happens but the sisters went by on Wednesday and he was
telling them how excited he was to be able to go to church. He hung
out with the elders the rest of the day and went to a dinner
appointment. Where he was taught the restoration.
Monday we had a pretty killer district meeting! We talked about the
gift of discernment and the doctrine of Christ and went through and
found scriptures for each of them. We had brownies and Crepes
afterwards for elder Casela's birthday. It was fantastic. It was fun.
We tracted Aton so that was good. We found 1 cool person for our
sisters. Yeah pretty much it.
Tuesday was wonderful, we had interviews and a zone study with
president smith. In the zone study he talked about how only through
the atonement of Jesus Christ can we have lasting change. And he
showed that. He also talked about developing Christlike attributed and
how that should be something we always try to do. Every week choose
one and try to develop it. It was a wonderful study, how are we
applying what we learned from elder holland as well as elder Bennett.
I loved it! We ate some Halal food with elders Newbold and Tatafu. We
got mail and ate dinner. We tracted and found this one girl who
remembers that missionaries used to stop by to teach her deaf brother
(we have ASL missionaries) like 13 years ago. She is interested in
what's it's like being a Mormon and she wants to come to church. It is
so awesome. We also met with Kevin! Sauce got mad at him and he hasn't
been able to get in all day and he was about to drop us again because
he was saying if God is doing all this to me then I don't want a part
in it. We read Mosiah 24, which talks about the people in bondage and
if they prayed they would be put to death. He loved the counsel the
lord gave to the people. We also showed him some of our favorite
scriptures and he smiled so big as he read it. He just wanted to read
and read and read. He did the opening and closing prayer. He wants to
meet with us today as well. The change you see the gospel make in
someone's life is incredible. I just love seein it. I love Kevin a
lot. He is gonna read the Book of Mormon over and over because he
loves it that much.
This morning we helped some members move, and we are gonna go to the
temple chapel and go play some sports and chill. I love New York. I
know the gospel is true and I am so grateful to be here. I know that
Jesus Christ's Atonement is real and that we can all use that power to
be forgiven of our sins. The gospel is 100% true, find out for
yourself, pray and ask and you shall receive. Talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Casper
1. Saw one of our cards on a door to a Hispanic lady.
2. The top sticker is dope.
3. California Republic!
4. A weird statue up in Harlem
5. Too legit to quit!!
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