Newtown Connecticut 2nd Area

Hello everyone, this week has even crazy with all the changes in my schedule. I am actually in Newtown Connecticut, that's my area. In the Yorktown zone. It's a crazy big area we cover. So Wednesday was just weird for me, there are 2 transfer meetings that go on. One is in Inwood (City) and the other in Ossining (Upstate). I had to go to both. The city one starts at 10 and afterward we have like half an hour to chill and talk to people until we leave. I got to talk to people from my MTC district and they didn't believe that I was already transferring after 1 cycle. Then the AP's take us to the upstate meeting which starts at 1. I got to talk to more of my mtc district and see how they are doing. I'm actually serving around one of them. That's where I met Elder Tancayo, he is the district leader and he only has like 11 weeks left until he goes home. We really didn't even have a pday, we did some service for the last hour and a half, then some. We have been sanding these wood floors in there home and recently we just helped them stain and poly the floors. It looks so good, too bad that's not the end.

Anyways I will go through how my week has been. One Wednesday we also had a meeting with the ward mission leader and bishop. Do you guys remember a family named the Loutensocks? They lived in Lincoln in Mariner Circle and were in the 1st ward from 2000-2002. I got to meet sister Loutensock on Sunday and she told me she remembers me when I was a little boy. She says mom and her are facebook friends. Anyways we will be having dinner at their house every Wednesday night for ward coordination. You can ask her how I'm doing if you want to :D

Thursday we helped brother Cunningham sand his floors again. Our days have been really busy with service. It's way different then the city here. Just because the people are friendly and they have service for us to do. So my roommates are Elder Richan and Elder Palakiko. Elder Tancayo and Palakiko are both from Hawaii, so I have been trying Hawaiian food which is actually unique. Elder Richan has this meal plan that actually works. There is like a strict diet and exercise that helped another guy on the mission loose 52 pounds in 16 weeks. So I am trying it and he promises me that I will see results. The only hard part of the meal plan is all the people that feed us every night. But we will see how it works. 

So there is this guy named Johnny Choi and he has a huge wear house full of diaper bags and we help him weekly and what he does in return is takes us out to wherever we want. And he pays for us. He is an extremely cool dude! He loves having the missionaries over and loves taking us out. Our stake President here has been wanting us missionaries to get into members home and talk about these tools we have as missionaries called "lightening rounds". These rounds are simplified versions of the lessons we teach as missionaries kind of like an elevator pitch. He wants them to know these and to use them just so everyone knows the doctrine behind them. He wants us to visit every quorum and organizations in our ward and show everyone how cool we are. So they want to be missionaries and start growing their testimonies. 

It is honestly super cool to see the ward work together to try to get us in every place and just be super effective about it. Bishop told us that we will probably be giving a talk soon too, he wants us involved in EVERYTHING! 

There is this family named the Knibbe family which is pronounced Ka-nibbe. Their son served in the California Roseville mission which totally made my day. He was in Lincoln for a bit, in the Spanish branch. He finished his mission in 2007 so it has been awhile, I was barely 12 when he served so I have no clue. I love hearing about people that served where I live because no one knows where Lincoln California is and when they did I am super shocked. I truly have been sent here for a reason and not to just get transferred randomly. Heavenly Father has been a true influence. 

We do so much random acts of service, just when people aren't expecting it we shovel the entire complex, or a pathway in front of a house just to be super nice. You don't ask to do something kind for someone as a missionary. It's such a good feeling to do service for people. I love it so much, when ye are in the service of your fellow being, ye are only in the service of your God. (Mosiah 2:17) True story. 

That is something that the youth need to know, that serve whole heartily and love who you serve. Service is not a burden it is truly a blessing. You don't know what people are going through, so if you serve.. You were sent there for a reason to help that person. If you have an impression to serve, just do it. You will be blessed, and I promise you that. Our mission ️President encourages us to do as much service as possible because that shows love and it helps people. Just like we are supposed to be doing. See that ye serve with all your heart, might, mind and strength. Just as D&C 4:2 says. 

On Sunday we got to stand outside the chapel and say hello to everyone entering with big smiles and being cheerful. I try to say hello to everyone entering the chapel. To introduce myself so people can get to know me slightly better. It's truly a wonderful feeling to be happy where you are and to feel the spirt with you is just amazing. 

Honestly I want to bear my testimony on the importance of preach my gospel. Everything in there is truly revelation from God, and is here to help us as Latter Day Saints. Even if you don't want to go on a mission please study it and get familiar with it because everything in there helps you become better. I've been reading about Christlike attributes and I am trying to work on all of the attributes I can because that's how I can be successful as a missionary. I challenge everyone who is reading this to learn preach my gospel. To study it daily along with the scriptures because they go hand in hand together. I have to study and read it daily to help me progress on my mission. Like a speaker at the mtc says "fill the suit".

So we do car fasts every week, so at that time we walk around the town of bethel, which we usually do on the day of our weekly planning or possibly Friday. Johnny will pick us up and drop us off, usually our day is pretty much done afterwards. Last time he took them to the Cheesecake Factory, and they got whatever looks good to them. 

Speed bumps here are called speed humps, like who came up with that idea? Like what?

Until next time

Love,

Elder Casper

Ps. Whenever the new 2015 EFY comes out I kind of want it. I actually would like all of the newer ones. It would be so awesome! And thanks for all the support while I'm on my mission! :D

Transfered to Yorktown

So this week has been crazy, Saturday was shock calls which are

transfer calls, they told me Elder Wallace and I are staying so we

were excited. We were happy we were staying! Then Monday after our

district meeting we got a call from one of the Assistant Presidents,

he told us that we were transferring because someone that was supposed

to come in, decided not to, so we are leaving Harlem! Elder Wallace is

going to Scarsdale, and I am going to Yorktown! So my new area will be

Yorktown and my new companion will be Elder Tankio! So yeah when we

got that call, I was so nervous that I was leaving. It's my 2nd cycle

and I'm already in my 2nd area. I'm not even done with 12 week, I

really am not too excited to leave because I just got to know the

area. And I seriously don't want to get fat upstate. Everyone does...

But in all reality the lord needs me up there. There is some

experience that I need to have, someone is waiting for me to teach

them. But that is the crazy news I need to tell you!

 

These past couple days have been super crazy because of all the

packing we had to do. When we woke up this morning it was pretty

emotional, we are all pretty sad. Everyone in our apartment is leaving

but one of them. They closed our area down, and it was absorbed by the

other Elders in our district. It is way crazy, yesterday we went

around saying goodbye to a lot of the ward, and just getting pictures.

I'll send the pictures in a while. I want to know your thoughts on the

whole transfer thing? I get a car! I have to drive safely, and

cautiously in New York/Connecticut. That's my zone, right between the

two! That's what some one told me!

 

My week has been crazy, I can't remember what happened anymore, just crazy!

 

I'll let you know how things are next week, until next time!

 

Love,

Elder Casper

New Year

Hello family, Happy New Year! This last week was pretty chill and

awesome, of course we had Christmas and everything. We went to a

temple missionary couples house, all 6 missionaries in our ward went

to their apartment. They are like on the 12th floor and they have a

nice little apartment. One thing they said to us is its amazing to be

a senior missionary because you get to choose your companion. I

thought that was funny, anyways they gave us all a $10 Wendy's gift

card! And they are just way to sweet, and they talked to us and asked

questions about our families and home and stuff. We were kind of mad,

people from our district went ice skating that day, even though we

weren't supposed to. But we will receive those extra blessings.

Friday we were supposed to weekly plan but we had lessons and

basketball with some Homies from Costco. And dinner oh yeah I also

split with one of the zone leaders, Elder Duvall.

Saturday was good, I got to lead the area and lead all the lessons.

Elder Duvall kind of just added input but allowed me to teach it all

and ask questions. What really stinks about Friday and Saturday is the

lack of companionship study we were able to have because of how busy

we have become. We had a wonderful APF which is an Area Proselyting

Focus, which is where we choose one of the areas of a companionships

and tract or do something amazing to get new people interested. It's

really awesome especially with the He is the Gift video initiative.

There was a funny experience we had while on the split, we were on the

bus and this guy is like talking to this girl that's in college. He is

asking all these deep questions and totally hitting on her. He said he

was 57 years old and she was just awkwardly laughing. Oh and later on

we were doing a less active look up, and we tried ringing ourselves in

but this guy came up and said I can let you in if you give me a

donation, because of things that have been going there, then he

changed his story saying he got stabbed in the jugular, and how he is

lucky to be alive, then he was finally just like I'm just messing with

you guys and let us in. It was pretty sketchy, but yeah, we walked a

ton that day... Like a mile probably.

Nothing crazy happened on Sunday but Monday was pretty cool. I used to

hate Monday's back home but now they are another day. We had our

district meeting, and Elder Gamble which is in our Zone leaves this

week, so we had our meeting and took some pictures with him, which I

will send. We were lucky enough to have dinner with our bishop and we

asked if anyone cuts hair, and turns out their is someone in our ward!

I also went on another split with Elder Raine from our district, and

we walked 3 miles that day. 20 blocks=1 mile.

We tracted on Tuesday, ran into a Hispanic lady, some girls, and an

atheist dude. They are teaching the atheist dude, which is totally

amazing. I also got to speak Spanish a bit to the Hispanic lady, just

simple phrases. The atheist dude wants to study religion. It seems

like all atheists study religion for some reason, but his name was

Emir. That was a pretty good night.

Yeah yesterday was New Year's Eve, and we had to be in by 7 and of

course our fridge decides to make our night interesting, making weird

noises. We got to call Santiago to come fix it, he is the repair man

dude person. He was talking about weird things in the bible. It was

super weird, it's cold here in New York and yesterday I wore a sweater

and long sleeve white shirt, and I was freezing during walking to

appointments and our zone APF.

Happy New Years, it was really fun talking to you family, and I will

be doing some shopping soon. We are almost done with our first cycle!

Next Wednesday is transfers! And a roommate is training in our

apartment so I won't be a baby anymore! I am so excited! Then in 6

more weeks I will have facebook, and be able to post spiritual stuff!

I'm ready!

Talk to you next week, oh yeah and New Year's Day in New York is so

empty because of all the people staying up and partying and the people

who have a hang over. Haha well peace out everyone!

Love,

Elder Casper

Christmas Eve

Hello family and whoever is reading this, this week has been great! A

lot of crazy things have happened since the last email. We got to go

to the temple last week, that time at the temple was so amazing, first

time in New York. The lights in the city really make me feel good, I

love Christmas so this time of year really amazes me and just the

beauty is incredible. We went to century 21 right afterwards to look

for a tie, so Elder Wallace is my trainer and we call our trainers our

dads and our companion after that our mom. That's just how they do it

here, but we were looking for a matching tie, he trained another guy

in the mission and they have a matching tie so we were looking for the

same one, because it's a "family tie". It wasn't there but we are

hoping and praying for it to be there. It's like a blue paisley tie

that just looks awesome.

 

Thursday was fun, we have this guy we meet with named Johnny and we

meet every Thursday at the same time. He lives far from us but we just

take a bus down to Lenox and hop on a bus that takes us to Amsterdam

avenue. It takes about 20 minutes but we got to Lenox and he calls us

telling us we can't come over because the Police are evicting someone,

but we kept asking how does that affect us coming over. He just got

mad and told us next week. We were trying to find flat rate boxes but

no one had them, we were walking down Lexington and 125th which is

like 8 blocks from where we live. These people were talking to us

randomly about the weirdest things.. We would talk back but Elder

Wallace ran into someone he knew from the Bronx. Someone they were

working with, so we talked for like 20 minutes, and gave them a card

and went on our way. Went home and then did our planning for the week,

and got ready for our District Area Proselyting Focus. We went to

Saint Nicholas park and were trying to share the gift, and get people

to join in. The only problem is not that many people are out when it's

freezing outside. Anyways we ran into this guy and we were like "we

are doing an activity about Christ, would you like to do it?" He

responded with "I am Christ, can't you see the resemblance?" We just

sat there in silence for a second. We then told him to have a great

day, he responds with "I will, as I do every night, is this your

number? I will be in contact." Walks away, we were trying to not

laugh, because it was so hilarious. After he left we giggled a bit.

All of our district heard him say that. The end of the night we ran

into this guy who had paint on his face, and was smoking we then asked

him how he can keep Christ in Christmas, he then said sure and was

like "No way you're the Mormons?" We responded with yeah! How do you

know Mormons? He said rehabilitation in Utah and ran into a lot of

Mormons! So he was really interested, and he works at FAO Schwartz. He

wants to go to church and hopefully be baptized! We have actually had

like 3 investigators in the past week!

 

Friday we had a APF at a shopping mall wrapping gifts for free and

sharing the video to people while they wait, inviting them to church

and a lot say they will go, but we never see them. Before that we had

a lesson at the church, then we play basketball with the homies at the

church, a bunch of non members from Costco come play, we share a quick

message and then play! It is fun, and just super sweaty and smelly

too. I feel bad for people who use it after that, it's a 5 story

church building. I'll send a picture at some point! I've been getting

letters from people back home, It's amazing!

 

Saturday we went to a lesson and shared the "hope of gods light"

mormon message because she is having trouble quitting smoking, and she

won't do anything so we may have to drop her and her boy friend. we

had a church tour APF(this week was a big APF week because of

Christmas) and elder Wallace asked Him if he wanted some free hot

chocolate, he said no we asked if he wanted a free church tour and he

said "I want some of you" and my companion was just sitting there,

didn't know what to say.. So yeah my companion got hit on while on his

mission by another dude. That was an interesting day.

 

I had my first Priesthood Executive committee on Sunday, it was really

cool to ask for help to the bishop and them reaching out to our needs

as missionary, to strengthen our investigators and recent converts. I

realized how dirty this city is, all the advertisements have to be

vulgar. Never raise a family in Manhattan, just straight up.

 

Monday we had 5 lessons planned, and only 1 of those happened, another

was a finding event, we just showed up. But that night we were all

bummed because all other appointments fell through. My companion

wanted to go home but I was like lets tract because we are here, so a

whole floor we showed the video once, and this family was interested.

Went down a floor, first door we knocked on she opened it and told her

entire family to come hear the word of God. We shared the video, she

loved it and told us to share that with everyone, we asked her if she

knew anyone. Immediately she gave us like 3 people, asked for our

number, we got her number as well. Set up an appointment for Friday so

I am so stoked! Oh and her name is Destiny so I think that's perfect.

We shared the video 7 times and we are supposed to share it 20 times a

day.. So yeah. It's a challenge from our mission president.

 

Yesterday we did the gift wrapping thing again, but yesterday was

crazy, I taught my first lesson, like an entire preach my gospel

lesson! The gospel of Jesus Christ, and it went super well! Everything

we were saying we were both think and I can't wait for more lessons.

That night after the church we walked down to 125th and Lenox and it

was dark. We walked there and we just heard chanting and it was

protesters and there were riots. As soon as we saw the huge line of

them walking down with police officers everywhere, all behind them,

slowly moving behind them, the spirit just left, like you could feel

it leave. It was telling us to get out of there, so we did. Got home

safely and I'm glad we did! We have been getting mail like crazy, I

got something from grandma, and some Christmas cards from people.

 

I really love it here and I can't wait to continue my learning on my

mission, and I can't wait to go to the Rockefeller center today, time

square, there will be pictures to come! Look forward to that, have a

merry Christmas, love you all talk to you tomorrow!

 

Well I hope

to see pictures of your Christmas stuff, the decorations and stuff.

Love you!

 

-Elder Casper

Christmas Is Coming He is the Gift

Dear family, 

I got those white boxes, I opened the one with the speaker in it, thanks that's an awesome gift! I love it here, this is hands down the best mission, definitely better than the south! Aha no all missions are the best, it just depends on where you are. The experiences we have had are pretty crazy, there are just tons of people and police cars always around. We seem to notice them a bit more, also we notice the police helicopters like every night. The firemen didn't seem too upset, but they thought it was serious, gas leaks kill, so it's best to figure out what it is before it's too late. 

 I'm glad I'm in New York! You should tell the ward about the "He is the Gift"  initiative that the church is doing, it's a pretty big deal, they want it "to flood the earth". They really want everyone to bring Christ back into Christmas. Hence that's the reason we have Christmas! 

Tell Brandi I'm sorry she is sick, I've been sick the whole time I've been here, and it's no fun, especially when you don't have time to rest, and you're just always out. I'll call you around 9-10 am on Christmas your time probably, so just keep an eye out for a call on the home phone, or whoever you want me to call, let me know! Thanks for those motivational words dad, I needed to hear that, it's been a hard month so far, but I am excited to completely loose myself in the work, and forget about home and focus on the people I am teaching! 

Okay so this past week has been a good week. Our mission president has been really pushing us to show the video "he is the Gift" to everyone, to make sure everyone knows. So this last Friday we got to go to Ossining New York, for a mission wide Christmas devotional. Some of the missionaries signed up for choir, so they got to sing, and the spirit was strong. We got to eat, to chill with some missionaries, and relax for the first time since I got here. It's kind of weird seeing New York upstate, because it's so nice and there are about a billion trees, it's different than the city where they plant a tree and surround it in concrete. 

We had a Area Proselyting Focus, which is where everyone in our zone got together in one area and proselyte. We gave out over 90 cups of hot chocolate and talked to a bunch of people about christ and Christmas, showed them the video. New investigators!

Nothing crazy has happened like at all, other than a new investigator! We went to this floor started tracting at and at the end of it we found this lady named Theresa, she didn't seem too interested at first, but we showed her the video, then she was super interested! Gave her a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment. I can't wait to begin teaching her, she seems promising! 

We have just done a lot of tracting and less active look ups, today we are going to the temple, Manhattan is way nicer than Harlem, the city is so beautiful and clean compared to Harlem which is dirty and gross. I really like it here, and merry Christmas! I'll send you a message on next Wednesday! Christmas Eve! We actually go to the city the next 2 weeks, so I'll get you some pictures!

Love, Elder Casper

One Month Into My Mission

Hey family! How are you? The splits were good, 

I split with Elder Murphy, he was in Stamford

Connecticut where the friend from BYU-I lives! We had a pretty good

time! We meet in the Harlem 128th and Lennox building, yeah I saw

Makelle (Alldredge) at the temple church building, we were helping with a stake

choir concert! She kind of just yelled my name when I walked in and I

was like "Woah hey Makelle!" I'm not really sure what ward she is in,

you could probably find out though. I am writing in my journal, every

night. 

 

So my week has been super eventful, first of all did you hear about

all the riots happening all over the place? We had to go in at like

7-8 pm last Thursday and Friday! Saturday was super busy, we had new

missionary orientation, we got to see a general authority. Elder

Perkins of the Seventy conducted the meeting and gave us some cool advice.

Like I need to forget myself in the work, and just go for it. After

that we had to come back so we could go to the temple, to help with

the choir concert, standing for like 4 hours straight. I was so tired

that night. When I got home I went to bed as early as possible, I was

dead tired.

 

Sunday was pretty cool, we came home from church and my companion

cooked Alfredo, he turned the stove top burner all the way down, and

forgot it was on. We left and went to the christmas Devotional. When

we came back the whole apartment smelled of gas and we couldn't figure

out what it was then we heard like a hissing noise... So we went to

turn off the gas, and opened all the windows. Like 10 minutes later we

heard fire trucks.. 2 fire trucks and a normal truck ended up in front

of our apartment. Came up to our door and knocked on it, all 4 of us

were standing there and we told them the story, it's funny how there

are just 4 dudes in an apartment.. It's pretty funny, we were cracking

up for a while after, then some gas people came to check our heaters,

and one of them was leaking too. So that was a fun Sunday... Only 2

weeks into New York and something crazy already happened!

 

Monday I had my first Zone meeting, the spirit was so strong there. We

talked about the Book of Mormon, and the He is a Gift initiative. We

combined with the South mission to share the he is a gift video to

100,000 people so 20 people a day, and so far we have failed that,

it's literally impossible (or seems impossible). We are trying our best! 

After that we went

tracting into a project building, picked a random floor and prayed

then knocked on a door and it was someone we were looking for! Like

that's a miracle, talked to them for a while, and scheduled a time we

would come back and teach him more! Also we got a new investigator,

his name was Ray Lopez, he has like 4 kids, one that's 20, and like

all of them younger than 14. Someone else lives there we want to meet

with but we asked if he would like to see a video about Christ and

christmas, he said sure and now we have a new investigator!

 

 

So feel free to send me christmas music, EFY, mormon tabernacle choir.

I really want the 2010 efy cd the one with courage to stand strong,

walking on sunlight, and stuff!

 

Thanks for emailing me, let me know how things are going! Love you all

 

-Elder Casper

 

New York Thanksgiving

My thanksgiving was good! We went to the Pabones and had a slightly mexican dinner, with potato salad, turkey, pork, salad, rice with beans in it, and canolis! And a huge Canoli cake, like seriously huge... ha and honestly quite delicious! Quiet days are always good! I haven't had a chance to buy gloves and boots yet, I haven't had to yet. I'm glad to hear California is finally getting some rain, it is like way to dry. It hasn't been too cold here, just like 32 degree's if anything. It was snowing, but more like sleeting (Raining and snowing). Elder Wallace is awesome, I will get a picture to you sometime, and our sweet apartment! Our apartment is probably the best apartment in the city! We have a washer and dryer in it, so laundry all the time! Teaching has been going great, the spirit has definitely been there. New York is amazing, I cannot express how amazing it is! 

Last Thursday was pretty fun because of all the tracting we do, we mostly tract in Project buildings, you remember those right? The building that were made by the government, yeah well there are like cockroaches all in those, pee everywhere, and its straight up nasty! We have given a blessing to a recent convert who after we taught her she felt like she was going to die right then and there, so that was interesting. She is really nice, she got a skin graft for her neck. Our District leader served in Stamford Connecticut, and he knows someone I went to college with! It was fun talking to him about that. 

Something that my companion has told me is that he thinks I will be a Zone leader for my 3rd transfer, that's what he prophesies, they do this thing where he shoots a hoop and if he makes it then it is true, so far all the other things he guessed have been wrong so hopefully this is too. I wouldn't want to be a Zone leader just yet! We went around tracting people that were interested a little, that have been contacted by some missionaries, we found this guy who when we went in he already knew what we were teaching was true. We think that he will be for sure baptized! Sunday was amazing, Our bishop is like 30 years old, his counselors are older than he is, there names are Bishop Kelly, Brother Rane, and Brother Day. Brother Rane is actually a famous painter so we are having dinner with them tonight, and he gives every elder that comes to dinner the pictures he paints! So I will probably send those home, so I don't ruin them. It is a lot different waking up on a Sunday on a mission than back home. You still wake up at 6:30, and study and do stuff, but then you have meetings and then church, then visiting members and investigators. Missions are really hard work but they are amazing, so much blessings come out of them, you forget the bad things but remember the really amazing times. 

So Justin talked to me and told me that they called street contacting "fearlessing" because you have to be fearless in order to talk to people in New York! We have been getting pretty lucky with talking to people recently. People are starting to ask us questions, and wondering what we are about in a sense. Someone though I was a Salvation army person today, that was pretty cool, but yesterday this guy told us he saw us a lot and wanted to know what we do, we explained and gave him pass along card. Everything is awesome here! people are really weird, people seem to always be peeing in public, like seriously dude? And in the elevators and stairs... Just always use hand sanitizer, like always. It is so gross, I have always underestimated soap but now I love it! I will have my first splits tomorrow night to Friday night!

You need to check out the "He is a Gift" Church Video, it just came out, you might have seen it in the Ensign, it is a big deal! Tell everyone you know about it. It is a video basically saying that this Christmas season we need to remember Christ and all that he has done for us! So check that out right now! Share it with everyone, on facebook, through texts, at school! Help it become known! Talk to you next week! Pictures will come sometime soon!

Love,

Elder Casper

 PS

Also the mission home address is my address! So if you want to send packages post that to facebook, in 12 weeks I will be able to use my facebook for proselyting! Just to let you know! Also Elder Wallace's family sent him a christmas present, also one for me. It is one of those countdowns to christmas! Alec's mom also is sending me a package!