of miracles but I have been sick all last week, I've been feeling
better since Monday but it's not fun to be sick on the mission. Dennis
is doing really good and progressing really well. He is really excited
about his baptism and he has everything picked out! I love him to
death, he is truly ready to be baptized and I've been able to see him
change a lot and it's been incredible. We have almost taught him all
the commandments, all we have to teach him is lesson 5: Laws and
Ordinances. He is really excited and I can't believe I'm gonna have a
baptism finally! The only problem is transfers are next Tuesday so I
have a possibility of transferring, it happened while I was training
last time and while I was being trained. So yeah. I'm praying to stay!
Wednesday we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and I got some pictures for
you. We had a dinner with the Calders and we asked if she could make a
lot of vegetables because we wanted them. She made a lot and it was
incredible. We saw a lot of members on our way home which was super
nice.
Thursday we helped brother Shumway move some things in his apartment,
it took about an hour and then he took us to this place called Black
Burger and man it was delicious, they had curly fries too! And Dr
Pepper. It was great. The burger tasted pretty similar to In-N-Out and
I cannot wait to have In-N-Out again, first place we go off the plane.
Yeah. Anyways brother Shumway is awesome and we love him. We also met
with Kevin afterwards who is changing a lot, we taught the restoration
and we cleared up a lot with him, he had tons of questions which is
good. We did some planning and also met with this new media referral
named John Sidoti, he has super long hair and we showed him out
church. He really liked it but he said he would come to church on
Sunday and he didn't but he said he would be baptized as soon as he
knew it was true. He is really dope. We did some planning and had
dinner with the Murdochs, dominoes pizza is a very popular place to
get pizza, all the members feed us dominoes it seems but there was
fruit and vegetables too so that made us happy. They are awesome! I
love being able to teach the restoration to people who have never
heard it and John had a question of why God would wait to call a
prophet again and this morning in my studies I read in 1 Nephi 22 and
God waited for the United States of America to be established so we
could have religious freedom and 14 years after religious freedom was
declared, Joseph smith was born. It's pretty cool to see Gods planning
and how America is truly a blessed land for us.
Friday we had some pizza with Art Perez, one of our members. He fed us
at Gotham Pizza! We had half plain and half Margherita and man was it
delicious. We also saw Kevin outside for a couple seconds and he's
back with his girlfriend Sauce, they have an unhealthy relationship
and it made us pretty mad but we were okay. We went back to the
apartment and slept all day until our appointment with Dennis. I felt
like crap, I needed that recovery and it felt good to sleep and relax,
I've noticed my body hates me recently. I hurt a lot so the sleep was
really nice. We met with Dennis and we brought brother Myers with us
and taught him about tithing and fast offerings and Dennis is going to
pay tithing. He is really excited about his baptism! It's great!
Saturday we got Chinese food which was great, we planned and met with
this referral who walked into our building on Friday and his name is
Hamed. He is Muslim, but agnostic. He doesn't believe in his religion
but he does want to learn about the Mormons. He always sees us being
made fun of on South Park and other shows and it always shows Mormons
home with their families, that made him curious so he wants to learn
about the church. We taught him the restoration and he's pretty legit,
he invited us to his apartment in a couple weeks to have us on his
roof so we can see a sweet view of all the city. It will be great. We
can also bring anyone we want so member present! It's great, he added
me on Facebook too so that's awesome. We FaceTimed Yun and taught him
about the plan of salvation and it made sense to him and he is really
awesome and he is understanding the gospel more and more. After that
we went home and I slept because I felt terrible and it was nice.
Elder smiley and I stayed up for an hour talking about experiences we
have had and cool stories. It felt so good to sleep.
Sunday we were supposed to have ward council and after we were at the
church we found out that ward council wasn't happening because bishop
was out of town. We studied and then welcomed a lot of people to
church and it was great. Testimony meeting was awesome, I bore my
testimony about the Book of Mormon. That was the first time I bore my
testimony on a fast and testimony meeting. It was awesome and I love
the spirit you can feel when everyone bear their testimonies. Dennis
wanted to talk to bishop before he was gonna get baptized, and they
announced his baptism in sacrament meeting and they played onward
Christian soldiers (Dennis' favorite song) so that settled it. Church
was great, we met with Dennis afterwards and planned out the program
and we showed him the baptismal interview questions and determined
when he will be interviewed by our mission president. He is amazing!
We had coordination over FaceTime with Brother Leal, he is in Italy
but it was a quick coordination, we then met with Kevin. I am helping
him get his operating system on his laptop, I'm sharing my talents.
After and hour and a half we went home and we went to bed. It was a
good way to end the Sunday. Our district did super good in lessons, we
had a lot of lessons and we were able to use our technology for
teaching and to remember our purpose.
I woke up Monday and I felt better so we did some workouts and I found
out that I can do the clap push ups now, I'm grateful for the weight
I've lost. I did a 2 minute plank on Monday night, it was easy. I am
getting skinny and I like it. We had district meeting and talked about
the new rules they put out for technology, it's pretty cool. We taught
this dude named Tony who likes us and we are trying to get him
interested but he jokes around a lot. We also taught Dennis with a
member. We taught him Obedience, Pray often, scripture study and
sabbath day observance. It was super legit and the spirit was pretty
strong. It was great! We also got to teach Yun about some of the
gospel of Jesus Christ over FaceTime. A member bought us 2 large
dominoes pizzas and had them delivered to the church. It was freaking
great and we have lots of pizza still. Dennis' friend Eleanor from
Jersey called us because Dennis asked her to give a talk on the Holy
ghost and Eleanor wanted to talk with us for a bit. She's the friend
that Dennis has who is a Mormon. It's great to have her willing to
help and give a talk. It was a good night!
Tuesday we went to the 87th street chapel so elder smiley could clean
off his Facebook and I cleaned off my pictures off my iPad and put
them on my hard drive. It was awesome. We went to the church to meet
with Kevin who never showed up, we got mail at the temple building and
then came back and did a lot of look ups, none of which were home or
even wanted us to come up.. So yeah. We ate afterwards and went to
Duane reade to get laundry detergent and I'm looking for a back brace
because my lower back has hurt a lot recently and I don't like it. We
did the Book of Mormon board and gave a book out, it was fantastic.
It's funny to watch people see us and turn away. They will start to
talk to us and once they realize who we are they stop talking, or they
pretend they didn't hear us. It's great. A lot of people are super
nice and friendly to us. That's pretty much it. It has been an
incredible week, we have done a lot and we are working hard and we are
excited to meet with Dennis and he is excited for his baptism. I'm
humbled that Heavenly Father has given us one of his children to teach
and to prepare. It's awesome and I'm excited for the 27th of August!
Woot Woot!
I know the church is true and that the doctrine of Christ is super
simple but it can be hard. Exercise faith, repent, be baptized,
receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. For us members we can be
baptized again but we can partake of the sacrament weekly to renew of
the covenants we make when we are baptized. Read 3 Nephi 11, when
Jesus Christ comes to the Americas, the first thing he lets the
nephites do is touch the wounds in his hands and feet and he lets them
go forth one by one. It wouldn't be the quickest thing but Jesus
Christ wanted them to know who he is. It's really awesome and I know
Jesus Christ is my savior and redeemer and through him and his
atonement I can be clean from sin, I can receive help in my time of
trial and affliction. I can change and be a stronger disciple of
Christ and I can have my imperfections made perfect one day. I love
this gospel and seriously read the Book of Mormon! Have a great
week, talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Casper
1. From left to right: Your Favorite Son, Elder Essler, Elder Smiley,
and Elder Nelson
2. Nissan Z Series parked in Chinatown
3. General Tso's chicken
4. Taco Bell, elder smiley's and mine combined
5. Dennis and Us, I love his smile.
6. The Casper Pillow, I have to look into those.
Bronx Photo Shoot
No comments:
Post a Comment