As you'll see, today's letter is mostly directed to his family members, not too much information on what he is doing, only that he continues to work hard and is very excited to get to TX.
Here is his letter:
I think I just finished my 7th week here at the MTC. I've only got 2 weeks left. We are probably going to get our flight plans this week...I'm way excited.
This week has gone by so fast. Everyone says the last 3 weeks here go by really fast and its definitely true so far.
Ok so I've been wanting to send home a hand-written letter where I write back to everyone individually, but I never have time and I'm definitely not going to have time today, so I'm going to do that here.
Steven: I just got your dear elder yesterday...it was awesome. It made me laugh out loud a lot of times, just remembering all the things we use to do back at home. Like owning noobs on the internet all day and trying to take over Utopia kingdoms. That..is..the..life. It reminded me of how I use to play starcraft under my "IBackstabNoobs" name and backstab all the people trying to get free wins in compstomps. Haha...good times.
Zak: So I hear you are pretty much dominating without much competition anymore. That's ok...just wait until fantasy football starts and we will see who is dominating without any competition then. Just kidding, I know you're in control of my team right now, so you I guess you will get some of the credit for when I dominate. Two-a-days definitely don't sound fun either. After you get done with them you'll probably be pretty happy though. You'll probably be in amazing shape too. By the way, you need to keep me updated on the world of NFL.
Christopher: Sounds like you are workin hard as always. That GMAT test sounds like one beast of a test. At least you're done with that now. So you're going to finish up your last credits this next semester and begin your grad school stuff? Are you still going to be the IT manager guy? Good call on getting up to BYU before the first football game. I'm definitely going to miss that. Let me know how they do. I'm sure I'll be able to hear the announcers and all the cheering. You can see the stadium from here on campus and we hear when they're doing events and stuff there. I also thought the story about how you hadn't shaved for weeks was hilarious. I think when I get back, me you and Steven should boycott shaving together to see what kind of reaction we get out of brother green.
Quinn: Happy birthday! You just turned 13 right? And...you're going into 7th grade right? I think every teacher I had for 7th grade has either retired or changed jobs or got fired. How are the pull ups coming along? I haven't done any in forever...you are probably going to be able to do more than me soon. You are going to play flag football too right? That's awesome...I wish I did that. They don't let us play football here at the MTC.
Kylie: Kylie, Mom told me you're doing diving lessons! I'm jealous. If I was at home I would have taken that class with you. I show off my atomic bomb splash and do a gainer. That's pretty impressive to do a back dive. I get scared to do those because I feel like I'll land on my back every time. So, you like to do swimming, soccer, softball, tennis...and that's all I can think of. That's a pretty good list though. I think the more sports you do the better.
Griffin: How's in goin G-MAN! It sounds like the Phinneus and Ferb episodes are pretty interesting. How do you like swimming lessons? You are lucky you get to go, I want to go swimming. Can I be in your swimming lessons class when I come back?
Dad: Work sounds like its going great. Every time I hear about the deals and things you're doing it makes me want to start doing the same thing more and more. I really excited to study business when I get back. Its always been kind of hard to really try hard in school when I feel like I'm just learning random things for no reason other than to just become smarter. When I take business classes I'll be learning them for a reason and that's because I'm honestly interested in it and I like to learn about those things. Oh yeah...I also think thought it was really funny how I knew about the new callings of everyone in our ward and I'm not even living over there anymore.
Mom: I have loved all of your letters. They always make me laugh and make the day better. I also love all the stories you tell. So how is the foot coming along now? You have a walking cast now don't you? Thanks for taking care of all my mission stuff for me. I'm really excited to get a new bike when I get to Texas. I think I'll prefer riding my bike to places instead of driving. Of course I say that now before I have experienced the humidity. I'm glad you decided to send that trench coat, I'm definitely going to need it. I've been told it doesn't get quite as cold as Utah, but it still gets pretty chilly and it rains allll the time. By the way, I think I like the idea of having everyone write a few sentences for me for FHE. Oh and don't worry about spelling and capitalization, I don't care much about it either. My spelling has gotten a lot worse anyway...I keep getting words confused with the Spanish spelling of things.
Ok I've got 3 minutes left!! I haven't seen Melanie Warner, but that's probably because the only thing I remember about her is that she's blonde....and she's not blonde anymore. Being a Zone Leader is not so bad at all. We have to take care of the whole sacrament meeting and priesthood meeting every week. We also take care of all the newbies(the new missionaries) and make sure they aren't totally lost. We do that new missionary orientation for them and give them tours. I kind of like doing this stuff now. Ok, I had better send this before it closes down my e-mail and I lose everyone. Thanks for all the letters! I miss you and love you all!!!
Chase
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Chase Sent Pictures
Ok, I figured out how to scan pictures, again. I apologize up front - the real pictures are great quality. I am guessing my scanning screen is a bit dirty. Who knew? Next time, it will be better!
Studying very hard
This is the RC he talks about
Chase says he studies from 4 books at one time, it saves time
Chase and his companion
This is one of Chase's favorite ties
Posing
this is what he carries in his pockets every day
I thought he did a great job with the pictures!
Now, enjoy!
Chase said this was the first day he wore normal clothes, it took him by surprise
Studying very hard
This is the RC he talks about
Chase says he studies from 4 books at one time, it saves time
Chase and his companion
This is one of Chase's favorite ties
Posing
this is what he carries in his pockets every day
I thought he did a great job with the pictures!Scanning wasn't so hard, I would be happy to do it again!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Picture Notice!
We received some pictures from Chase on Saturday. I will have to figure out how to scan them into the computer, then I will post them for you. It was nice to see his happy face! So check back often!
Received Tues, Aug 19th
I've got only 3 weeks left here in the MTC!
I am getting more and more excited and anxious to get out to the field every day. We have learned every Spanish grammar principle and we are just reviewing ones we need work on now. We have gone over pretty much everything in Preach My Gospel and we're just reviewing things we want to work on. For these last few weeks I'm just going to try to speak as much Spanish as possible and review grammar that I need work on. I'm also teaching in the TEC (where you teach teachers who pretend to be investigators, then they give you feedback) as much as possible. Everyone says these 3 weeks go by faster than any other ones...I hope so.
Ok I actually remembered to bring my letters with me to respond to today, so I'm going to go through those real quick. I hope Dad had an awesome birthday. I totally forgot about the taco truck. I'm not too disappointed on missing out on that though...I'm going to be getting 2 years worth of authentic Mexican food anyway. I actually already knew about all the callings a week before you sent that DearElder...Dad told me in the letter he sent me. I loved the descriptions of each of the Elder's quorum guys though. It made me laugh out loud. I think the Cards will do awesome at seminary. No I have not gotten a letter from the Parks yet and I didn't get cinnamon rolls or anything from the Garry's. I did get a letter from Catherine Card and also one from Torri McEntire..her letter was pretty funny. Ryan Carreon is in the McAllen Texas mission. Apparently hes already been evacuated for a hurricane once already. So is this the week Melanie Warner comes in or is that next? I'll keep an eye out for her.
Did you know that every Wednesday when we get a whole new wave of missionaries, there is only 1 district of intermediate Spanish speakers and only 1 of advanced? There are only 2 zones in the whole MTC that have intermediate Spanish speaking classes. Like 90% of the districts that come in are beginners, so I was pretty lucky I guess. Our teacher also told us last week that he's never pushed a district as hard as ours before, but we are taking it so easily. He said he's going to turn up the heat even more this week. We told him to bring it on. My Spanish is going pretty well. I can understand like 90% of what a native speaker says as long as they don't have really weird accents. We teach all our lessons and everything in Spanish now. One day we had a substitute teacher from Mexico and his cell phone rang and it scared him and he yelled, Ay Chispas!! Its been a big joke in our class since then. Ay chispas is one of my favorite sayings now.
I think my favorite Spanish songs are Secreta Oracion and Jesus es Mi Luz. We sing Secreta Oracion all the time...it's an awesome song. Do you remember those songs Christopher? Our teacher, Hermano Peterson, is awesome though. We do a lot of practices where he will pretend to be an investigator that he taught on his mission. It makes it so much more real and the problems we are dealing with are real. After we go through and teach him the best we can, he tells us how he did it when he came across it in the field. He has some incredible stories. It's really fun. His other brother just got back from his mission and he is teacher at the MTC now too. He also has a younger brother who is here learning Japanese, so all 3 of them eat together all the time. Our branch president's son is also here so they get to eat together at least every Sunday. Oh yeah...Christopher's blue Spanish learning book thing he gave me has been a hit in my class. I started using it last week to try to understand subjunctive a little better and I was pretty fascinated by how the guy in the book teaches these things. Other people asked me about it and ever since then its been passed around to just about everyone in my class.
Christopher/Steven do you think you guys could get Tony's address for me? You could probably just ask him over facebook or something like that.
This Sunday is when my companion and I were officially made the Zone Leaders. I'm not to worried though. We've just got a couple extra meetings and responsibilities. I'm working every second I'm awake anyway, so I don't mind doing Zone Leader stuff too. We sit up on the stands with the bishopric during church too, that's kind of fun.
How is life at home?? Football season starting soon isn't it? Are people excited for fantasy football? Are Christopher and Steven getting ready to come back up to BYU? You're going to have to let me know how BYU is doing. And also how the chargers do. How's your leg doing now Mom?
Ok well my time is pretty much out now. Everything is still going great. No real problems. I'm working every second I can and I feel like I've got a pretty good vision of what I want to get done and what I want to accomplish while I'm here. I love you all and I love hearing from everyone. It always makes a day better. I'm going to TRY to get a handwritten letter in today where I can say a couple sentences to everyone individually. We'll see though. P-days are always ridiculously busy.
Love,
Chase
I am getting more and more excited and anxious to get out to the field every day. We have learned every Spanish grammar principle and we are just reviewing ones we need work on now. We have gone over pretty much everything in Preach My Gospel and we're just reviewing things we want to work on. For these last few weeks I'm just going to try to speak as much Spanish as possible and review grammar that I need work on. I'm also teaching in the TEC (where you teach teachers who pretend to be investigators, then they give you feedback) as much as possible. Everyone says these 3 weeks go by faster than any other ones...I hope so.
Ok I actually remembered to bring my letters with me to respond to today, so I'm going to go through those real quick. I hope Dad had an awesome birthday. I totally forgot about the taco truck. I'm not too disappointed on missing out on that though...I'm going to be getting 2 years worth of authentic Mexican food anyway. I actually already knew about all the callings a week before you sent that DearElder...Dad told me in the letter he sent me. I loved the descriptions of each of the Elder's quorum guys though. It made me laugh out loud. I think the Cards will do awesome at seminary. No I have not gotten a letter from the Parks yet and I didn't get cinnamon rolls or anything from the Garry's. I did get a letter from Catherine Card and also one from Torri McEntire..her letter was pretty funny. Ryan Carreon is in the McAllen Texas mission. Apparently hes already been evacuated for a hurricane once already. So is this the week Melanie Warner comes in or is that next? I'll keep an eye out for her.
Did you know that every Wednesday when we get a whole new wave of missionaries, there is only 1 district of intermediate Spanish speakers and only 1 of advanced? There are only 2 zones in the whole MTC that have intermediate Spanish speaking classes. Like 90% of the districts that come in are beginners, so I was pretty lucky I guess. Our teacher also told us last week that he's never pushed a district as hard as ours before, but we are taking it so easily. He said he's going to turn up the heat even more this week. We told him to bring it on. My Spanish is going pretty well. I can understand like 90% of what a native speaker says as long as they don't have really weird accents. We teach all our lessons and everything in Spanish now. One day we had a substitute teacher from Mexico and his cell phone rang and it scared him and he yelled, Ay Chispas!! Its been a big joke in our class since then. Ay chispas is one of my favorite sayings now.
I think my favorite Spanish songs are Secreta Oracion and Jesus es Mi Luz. We sing Secreta Oracion all the time...it's an awesome song. Do you remember those songs Christopher? Our teacher, Hermano Peterson, is awesome though. We do a lot of practices where he will pretend to be an investigator that he taught on his mission. It makes it so much more real and the problems we are dealing with are real. After we go through and teach him the best we can, he tells us how he did it when he came across it in the field. He has some incredible stories. It's really fun. His other brother just got back from his mission and he is teacher at the MTC now too. He also has a younger brother who is here learning Japanese, so all 3 of them eat together all the time. Our branch president's son is also here so they get to eat together at least every Sunday. Oh yeah...Christopher's blue Spanish learning book thing he gave me has been a hit in my class. I started using it last week to try to understand subjunctive a little better and I was pretty fascinated by how the guy in the book teaches these things. Other people asked me about it and ever since then its been passed around to just about everyone in my class.
Christopher/Steven do you think you guys could get Tony's address for me? You could probably just ask him over facebook or something like that.
This Sunday is when my companion and I were officially made the Zone Leaders. I'm not to worried though. We've just got a couple extra meetings and responsibilities. I'm working every second I'm awake anyway, so I don't mind doing Zone Leader stuff too. We sit up on the stands with the bishopric during church too, that's kind of fun.
How is life at home?? Football season starting soon isn't it? Are people excited for fantasy football? Are Christopher and Steven getting ready to come back up to BYU? You're going to have to let me know how BYU is doing. And also how the chargers do. How's your leg doing now Mom?
Ok well my time is pretty much out now. Everything is still going great. No real problems. I'm working every second I can and I feel like I've got a pretty good vision of what I want to get done and what I want to accomplish while I'm here. I love you all and I love hearing from everyone. It always makes a day better. I'm going to TRY to get a handwritten letter in today where I can say a couple sentences to everyone individually. We'll see though. P-days are always ridiculously busy.
Love,
Chase
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Received Tue, Aug 12, 2008
Dang it...I totally forgot to bring the dear elder's Mom sent me. I had highlighted all the questions and all the things I was going to talk about. I'll just try to remember as well as I can. I did write down a bunch of things I was going to talk about though.
Happy Birthday yesterday Dad! I tried to get a picture of the Houston temple to send home as a birthday present, but they didn't have any. I did find a really cool Book of Mormon bookmark though. It's really colorful and it has pictures of all the Book of Mormon stories in chronological order. I'm going to be sending that home with the pictures I'm sending this week.
I did get Dad's letter last week. The time went by so fast I didn't get to respond to much of what anyone said. But I was really glad to hear that Dad likes his job a lot. I honestly think that I would love to do something similar to that. I've got a lot of time to think about it though. I wouldn't mind going to work with Dad for at least part of a day when I come back.
Mom: I totally forgot about those return address stickers, I am glad you reminded me. I've been using them ever since last week, they are very convenient. The address is slightly different than the one I usually use, but it still works just fine.
That is awesome that Zak and Quinn get to go to scout camp. I actually never got to do that.
I did buy a journal and I have been writing in it pretty much every night. We actually had a fireside a little while ago about how important it is to write in your journal.
Oh yeah, how did our family pictures turn out? I would like it if you could send me one...I don't really care what size.
My Spanish is been coming along pretty well. This last Friday we had a funeral for English. English is no longer alive in our district. We only speak English during planning and interviews. We learn the gospel, grammar, and everything all in Spanish now. This is definitely the best way for me to learn Spanish. Doing those exercises in textbooks never really help much at all. I've got all the grammar principles and things I need in my head already, I've just got to get use to learning when to use them and being able to do it quickly. I can understand like 75% of what a native speaker says when they are speaking as fast as they like.
One major thing I've noticed is that when I'm listening to someone speak in Spanish I don't have to sit there, listen to their sentence, then translate it to English. Now I just hear a Spanish word and the meaning automatically registers in my head. I can actually keep up in a conversation
now. So I think I'm definitely on my way to speaking Spanish pretty well, I just have to expose myself to it and get my mind in Spanish mode.
Quinn: Of course I do real pull-ups, that is the man's way to do it. I actually never do chin-ups. Everyone says they're easier, but I honestly don't notice much difference. The pull-up bar we have is metal and it punches my skin when I'm doing my pull-ups, so I haven't been doing them very much. My roommate, Elder Painter who is a martial arts black belt guy/ certified professional trainer, has been showing me a lot of cool pushups and martial arts stuff. The highest I've gotten to is 15 pullups, so try to beat that. If you do, I'll have to extend a challenge for push-ups.
Ok those are all the questions I remember.
Well as far as news for me this week, the biggest thing is that my companion and I were asked to be the zone leaders. Our current zone leaders are leaving in a week or so, then we're going to take over for them. That means I'm going to be responsible for like 60 missionaries. I don't think it will be so bad though. As a district leader you really have to know everyone personally and be able to set goals and help everyone according to individual needs. As a zone leader you don't have to get to know every person in your zone super well. So I'm going to have a lot more responsibilities now, but they wont be as intense. I'll let you know how it goes.
2 sundays ago we I had my first testimony meeting in Spanish. It was awesome. We have a lot of natives in our branch so it was cool to hear them speak in "real" Spanish. It was good practice for when we get out to the field. I bore my testimony too, it was a good experience.
Oh yeah, I loved hearing from everyone last week. Even though it was just a sentence or two I could totally pick out your personalities by what you wrote, it was funny. I think everyone should write again.
Oh yeah...I remember when Steven told that story he heard about sister missionaries praying to turn water into gasoline. Well, those missionaries were in my teachers mission in Florida. He told us that story and he said people joked about it for months. The car was totally ruined after that and they had to get rid of it. It was funny to hear the story from him because he knew them
personally. He told us how the story spread all across the east coast too, and I guess that's how it got to Steven's mission. My teacher is actually 23, turning 24 this Friday. He's been married for like 1 1/2 years, which is weird because he's younger than Christopher.
One of my favorite things here at the MTC is the RC(Referral Center). I think I've explained it to you before. People see commercials or get a passalong card and order a Bible/BoM/video or something, then we go to the RC and call them back to make sure they got it. Then we talk to them about the Gospel and how they like whatever they ordered. Every time we go we always get these people from the south who have really thick accents. It's hard not to laugh sometimes.
People have some hilarious answering machines too. I've had some pretty funny conversations with people there.
Well, I'm just about out of time. Things are going good though. I've only got like 3-4 weeks left or something. Time is passing by so fast. I'm learning a ton though. I'm way excited to finally get to go to the mission field. We had people come in and tell us about foods we'll probably be eating in our missions, that was a fun lesson. They told us about some of the grossest things we're going to be eating on our missions too. Christopher have you heard of menudo? Its basically all the intestines and nasty parts of an animal put together in one dish.
Ok I have like 30 seconds left. I love you all and miss you! Hope to hear from you soon!
-Chase
Happy Birthday yesterday Dad! I tried to get a picture of the Houston temple to send home as a birthday present, but they didn't have any. I did find a really cool Book of Mormon bookmark though. It's really colorful and it has pictures of all the Book of Mormon stories in chronological order. I'm going to be sending that home with the pictures I'm sending this week.
I did get Dad's letter last week. The time went by so fast I didn't get to respond to much of what anyone said. But I was really glad to hear that Dad likes his job a lot. I honestly think that I would love to do something similar to that. I've got a lot of time to think about it though. I wouldn't mind going to work with Dad for at least part of a day when I come back.
Mom: I totally forgot about those return address stickers, I am glad you reminded me. I've been using them ever since last week, they are very convenient. The address is slightly different than the one I usually use, but it still works just fine.
That is awesome that Zak and Quinn get to go to scout camp. I actually never got to do that.
I did buy a journal and I have been writing in it pretty much every night. We actually had a fireside a little while ago about how important it is to write in your journal.
Oh yeah, how did our family pictures turn out? I would like it if you could send me one...I don't really care what size.
My Spanish is been coming along pretty well. This last Friday we had a funeral for English. English is no longer alive in our district. We only speak English during planning and interviews. We learn the gospel, grammar, and everything all in Spanish now. This is definitely the best way for me to learn Spanish. Doing those exercises in textbooks never really help much at all. I've got all the grammar principles and things I need in my head already, I've just got to get use to learning when to use them and being able to do it quickly. I can understand like 75% of what a native speaker says when they are speaking as fast as they like.
One major thing I've noticed is that when I'm listening to someone speak in Spanish I don't have to sit there, listen to their sentence, then translate it to English. Now I just hear a Spanish word and the meaning automatically registers in my head. I can actually keep up in a conversation
now. So I think I'm definitely on my way to speaking Spanish pretty well, I just have to expose myself to it and get my mind in Spanish mode.
Quinn: Of course I do real pull-ups, that is the man's way to do it. I actually never do chin-ups. Everyone says they're easier, but I honestly don't notice much difference. The pull-up bar we have is metal and it punches my skin when I'm doing my pull-ups, so I haven't been doing them very much. My roommate, Elder Painter who is a martial arts black belt guy/ certified professional trainer, has been showing me a lot of cool pushups and martial arts stuff. The highest I've gotten to is 15 pullups, so try to beat that. If you do, I'll have to extend a challenge for push-ups.
Ok those are all the questions I remember.
Well as far as news for me this week, the biggest thing is that my companion and I were asked to be the zone leaders. Our current zone leaders are leaving in a week or so, then we're going to take over for them. That means I'm going to be responsible for like 60 missionaries. I don't think it will be so bad though. As a district leader you really have to know everyone personally and be able to set goals and help everyone according to individual needs. As a zone leader you don't have to get to know every person in your zone super well. So I'm going to have a lot more responsibilities now, but they wont be as intense. I'll let you know how it goes.
2 sundays ago we I had my first testimony meeting in Spanish. It was awesome. We have a lot of natives in our branch so it was cool to hear them speak in "real" Spanish. It was good practice for when we get out to the field. I bore my testimony too, it was a good experience.
Oh yeah, I loved hearing from everyone last week. Even though it was just a sentence or two I could totally pick out your personalities by what you wrote, it was funny. I think everyone should write again.
Oh yeah...I remember when Steven told that story he heard about sister missionaries praying to turn water into gasoline. Well, those missionaries were in my teachers mission in Florida. He told us that story and he said people joked about it for months. The car was totally ruined after that and they had to get rid of it. It was funny to hear the story from him because he knew them
personally. He told us how the story spread all across the east coast too, and I guess that's how it got to Steven's mission. My teacher is actually 23, turning 24 this Friday. He's been married for like 1 1/2 years, which is weird because he's younger than Christopher.
One of my favorite things here at the MTC is the RC(Referral Center). I think I've explained it to you before. People see commercials or get a passalong card and order a Bible/BoM/video or something, then we go to the RC and call them back to make sure they got it. Then we talk to them about the Gospel and how they like whatever they ordered. Every time we go we always get these people from the south who have really thick accents. It's hard not to laugh sometimes.
People have some hilarious answering machines too. I've had some pretty funny conversations with people there.
Well, I'm just about out of time. Things are going good though. I've only got like 3-4 weeks left or something. Time is passing by so fast. I'm learning a ton though. I'm way excited to finally get to go to the mission field. We had people come in and tell us about foods we'll probably be eating in our missions, that was a fun lesson. They told us about some of the grossest things we're going to be eating on our missions too. Christopher have you heard of menudo? Its basically all the intestines and nasty parts of an animal put together in one dish.
Ok I have like 30 seconds left. I love you all and miss you! Hope to hear from you soon!
-Chase
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Received Tuesday, Aug 5, 2008
Wow...it seems like a lot has happened this week.
I started to write down things I wanted to tell everyone, so hopefully I'll be a little more organized this time and be able to tell you everything, because I'm not sure if I'm going to have time to also write a hand-written letter. I have to write back like 3-4 other people from school that wrote me and they really only give us like 2-3ish hours to write letters.
Ok I'll start with the news that I've gotten. So Mom managed to break her leg again???? I knew what was going to happen as soon as Mom wrote about how she sprayed the back step with water. Well Mom you can look at it like you are on vacation now and you have 6 servants at your side to do whatever you want, so you don't ever even have to get up. That sounds like a pretty nice deal to me. I think I just convinced myself to break my own leg. I hope you feel better though. I am pretty confident that if there is any combination of drugs that will help relieve your pain, you will find it. We have a pretty big arsenal of drugs at home too. I've contributed some percoset and vicodin myself.
I can't believe I missed the earthquake!! I've been wanting to feel an earthquake forever. I felt some really tiny ones before when I was younger but nothing since then. On the day the earthquake happened my teacher told us there were earthquakes in southern California. I let out a big sigh of disappointment. As soon as I leave the earthquake hits. Luckily it wasn't a huge one though...that would actually be pretty scary. I think the funniest part about it was how Griffin didn't let the earthquake disturb his computer game. It brought a perfect image of that whole scene to my head.
Ok, so I realized I haven't really told you that much about all the basic stuff like where I'm living and about my district. So the building I live in is basically the best building you can be in. Its as close as you can get to EVERYTHING. Everything, i.e. our classrooms, the cafeteria, the bookstore, the post office, the RC, is surrounding our building. Its pretty awesome. I live on the top (4th) floor. The RC is actually on the 2nd story of our building so its pretty nice.
So...about my district. Me, my companion, and the 2 hermanas are all going to Houston Texas South Spanish speaking. We have 2 elders going to Montevideo, Uruguay. One going to Fresno, California. One going to Asuncion, Paraguay, two going to Argentina (Buenos Aires North and Resistencia) and that's all I think. I'm not sure if I told you all of that before yet. I do remember telling you that we have all taken Spanish before and were all intermediate Spanish. Everyone on our floor (of where we sleep) is either intermediate or advanced, so were pretty surrounded by Spanish. My companion, Elder Hickman, is somebody who I probably wouldn't get along with very well outside of the mission. But we make it work and we actually teach really well together. He is overly critical about a lot of things and pretty argumentative. I just let it all slide and he's starting to catch on to the fact that I don't want to argue and hes starting to really try to not argue about stupid things anymore. I remember once I said something about giving out Books of Mormon. He told me it was said "Book of Mormons." I told him that I know its pronounced Books of Mormon tried to explain how there are multiple books not mormons. He said there is only 1 book of mormon, but there are multiple copies and that you always pluralize by putting as S onto the end of everything. He was really aggravating me...I hate it when people tell me I'm wrong when I know I'm right. That's when I realized I just need to let things go and not worry about it.
By the way, Mom, we made some good choices on ties. People have been complimenting me a lot of my ties. After I started getting all these compliments I realized that a lot of my ties change colors depending on what angle you're looking at it. They are pretty cool. Also, another piece of important news: I tie my tie with a double winsor knot now. I stepped up from the normal winsor, its a big deal here at the MTC. We also have a daily debate about whether or not it is good to have a dimple. Pretty much everyone is against having a dimple, but one elder (elder Strickland) insists on putting in a dimple every time. Its pretty funny. We have a picture of the Quorum of the Twelve in our room and he pointed out that 2 of the 3 members of the presidency, including the prophet, have dimples in their ties. We have this "Dimple Doctrine" argument daily...its funny. My take on it is that if I happen to have a dimple in my tie, then I leave it, but if not, then the dimple was not meant to be.
I think I told you about how I love the prelude hymns at our devotionals and firesides and about how Army of Helaman was our districts favorite one. We asked our 1st counselor in the branch if he could play it for us soon (he plays the organ for a lot of the firesides/devotionals), and he said only Sister Boone (the MTC president's wife) gets to decide what he plays. It just so happens that our service assignment was to clean all the stairs in the main building and there just so happens to be a set of stairs outside Sister Boone's office. Me and 2 other elders walked into her office and asked if we could sing Army of Helaman for a devotional. She said yes of course and asked when we were leaving and promised us that we would sing it at least once before we left. So the next time we sing Army of Helaman its because we asked for it.
Ok I only have 5 minutes left and the timer thing in the corner is pulsing in big red numbers. I have a couple questions. So I bought new scriptures, should I send my old scriptures home? I also discovered that 1 pair of shoes I brought with me are too small, so I need to send those home too.
I'll quickly answer Mom's questions:My Spanish is coming along pretty well. Starting Thursday we are not allowed to speak English anymore. I eat a donut every day. We speak like 50% in Spanish everywhere. Umm...you can send me those socks in the next package you send me. You can also send me another pair of white socks. You can also send me that ankle brace...it starts to hurt playing soccer sometimes.
Ok 1 min left! I loved hearing from everyone in one DearElder letter. That's exactly what I wanted. I think that was a pretty good idea...it was good to hear from everyone. I'm going to try to send some pictures home soon. Ok, I love you all!Until next week,Chase
I started to write down things I wanted to tell everyone, so hopefully I'll be a little more organized this time and be able to tell you everything, because I'm not sure if I'm going to have time to also write a hand-written letter. I have to write back like 3-4 other people from school that wrote me and they really only give us like 2-3ish hours to write letters.
Ok I'll start with the news that I've gotten. So Mom managed to break her leg again???? I knew what was going to happen as soon as Mom wrote about how she sprayed the back step with water. Well Mom you can look at it like you are on vacation now and you have 6 servants at your side to do whatever you want, so you don't ever even have to get up. That sounds like a pretty nice deal to me. I think I just convinced myself to break my own leg. I hope you feel better though. I am pretty confident that if there is any combination of drugs that will help relieve your pain, you will find it. We have a pretty big arsenal of drugs at home too. I've contributed some percoset and vicodin myself.
I can't believe I missed the earthquake!! I've been wanting to feel an earthquake forever. I felt some really tiny ones before when I was younger but nothing since then. On the day the earthquake happened my teacher told us there were earthquakes in southern California. I let out a big sigh of disappointment. As soon as I leave the earthquake hits. Luckily it wasn't a huge one though...that would actually be pretty scary. I think the funniest part about it was how Griffin didn't let the earthquake disturb his computer game. It brought a perfect image of that whole scene to my head.
Ok, so I realized I haven't really told you that much about all the basic stuff like where I'm living and about my district. So the building I live in is basically the best building you can be in. Its as close as you can get to EVERYTHING. Everything, i.e. our classrooms, the cafeteria, the bookstore, the post office, the RC, is surrounding our building. Its pretty awesome. I live on the top (4th) floor. The RC is actually on the 2nd story of our building so its pretty nice.
So...about my district. Me, my companion, and the 2 hermanas are all going to Houston Texas South Spanish speaking. We have 2 elders going to Montevideo, Uruguay. One going to Fresno, California. One going to Asuncion, Paraguay, two going to Argentina (Buenos Aires North and Resistencia) and that's all I think. I'm not sure if I told you all of that before yet. I do remember telling you that we have all taken Spanish before and were all intermediate Spanish. Everyone on our floor (of where we sleep) is either intermediate or advanced, so were pretty surrounded by Spanish. My companion, Elder Hickman, is somebody who I probably wouldn't get along with very well outside of the mission. But we make it work and we actually teach really well together. He is overly critical about a lot of things and pretty argumentative. I just let it all slide and he's starting to catch on to the fact that I don't want to argue and hes starting to really try to not argue about stupid things anymore. I remember once I said something about giving out Books of Mormon. He told me it was said "Book of Mormons." I told him that I know its pronounced Books of Mormon tried to explain how there are multiple books not mormons. He said there is only 1 book of mormon, but there are multiple copies and that you always pluralize by putting as S onto the end of everything. He was really aggravating me...I hate it when people tell me I'm wrong when I know I'm right. That's when I realized I just need to let things go and not worry about it.
By the way, Mom, we made some good choices on ties. People have been complimenting me a lot of my ties. After I started getting all these compliments I realized that a lot of my ties change colors depending on what angle you're looking at it. They are pretty cool. Also, another piece of important news: I tie my tie with a double winsor knot now. I stepped up from the normal winsor, its a big deal here at the MTC. We also have a daily debate about whether or not it is good to have a dimple. Pretty much everyone is against having a dimple, but one elder (elder Strickland) insists on putting in a dimple every time. Its pretty funny. We have a picture of the Quorum of the Twelve in our room and he pointed out that 2 of the 3 members of the presidency, including the prophet, have dimples in their ties. We have this "Dimple Doctrine" argument daily...its funny. My take on it is that if I happen to have a dimple in my tie, then I leave it, but if not, then the dimple was not meant to be.
I think I told you about how I love the prelude hymns at our devotionals and firesides and about how Army of Helaman was our districts favorite one. We asked our 1st counselor in the branch if he could play it for us soon (he plays the organ for a lot of the firesides/devotionals), and he said only Sister Boone (the MTC president's wife) gets to decide what he plays. It just so happens that our service assignment was to clean all the stairs in the main building and there just so happens to be a set of stairs outside Sister Boone's office. Me and 2 other elders walked into her office and asked if we could sing Army of Helaman for a devotional. She said yes of course and asked when we were leaving and promised us that we would sing it at least once before we left. So the next time we sing Army of Helaman its because we asked for it.
Ok I only have 5 minutes left and the timer thing in the corner is pulsing in big red numbers. I have a couple questions. So I bought new scriptures, should I send my old scriptures home? I also discovered that 1 pair of shoes I brought with me are too small, so I need to send those home too.
I'll quickly answer Mom's questions:My Spanish is coming along pretty well. Starting Thursday we are not allowed to speak English anymore. I eat a donut every day. We speak like 50% in Spanish everywhere. Umm...you can send me those socks in the next package you send me. You can also send me another pair of white socks. You can also send me that ankle brace...it starts to hurt playing soccer sometimes.
Ok 1 min left! I loved hearing from everyone in one DearElder letter. That's exactly what I wanted. I think that was a pretty good idea...it was good to hear from everyone. I'm going to try to send some pictures home soon. Ok, I love you all!Until next week,Chase
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Received Friday, August 1, 2008
Dear Family,
Ok, I have just a couple things to say and one funny story to tell. I guess I'll start with the funny story.
One of the last things Christopher told me about the MTC was to be careful of the Orange Juice. Well at our Health Orientation, the guy didn't say anything about that so I didn't know if it was really applicable anymore, but I thought about it every time I saw someone drinking O.J. So a few days ago someone in my district started to get sick and he wanted to get a lot of vitamin C, so he got 5 cups of orange juice with his breakfast. I laughed about it and said I thought OJ might be a natural laxative or something. He laughed about it too and was like, "Nah, I always drink orange juice at home. I heard apple juice does that though." Then at lunch he drank 6 more cups of orange juice, the whole time I was just laughing to myself. Like 20 minutes later he had to go to the bathroom. Then like every 20 minutes after that he had to go again. We went to the RC (editor: I think that is the calling place at the MTC) for like 1 1/2 hours and he went like 12 times. It was hilarious. He ended up going to the bathroom like over 20 times that day. It definitely flushed out his system It was hilarious. We still made jokes about it all the time. So thanks for the hint Christopher.
They have like 5 extra front rows of seats saved at tonight's devotional, let's see if someone important is coming. On Sunday the Presiding Bishop of the Church came. He was a very good speaker. Most of the other people have been Emeritus members of the Quorum of the Seventies and our MTC director guy or something. Ok, its another Emeritus member of the Quorum of the Seventy speaking tonight. It seems like every devotional there are rumors of an apostle coming or something, it's kind of funny.
Ok, I love you all! If you have any specific questions about anything, just ask. When you do so many things every day it's hard to know what to write about sometimes.
Love,
Chase
Ok, I have just a couple things to say and one funny story to tell. I guess I'll start with the funny story.
One of the last things Christopher told me about the MTC was to be careful of the Orange Juice. Well at our Health Orientation, the guy didn't say anything about that so I didn't know if it was really applicable anymore, but I thought about it every time I saw someone drinking O.J. So a few days ago someone in my district started to get sick and he wanted to get a lot of vitamin C, so he got 5 cups of orange juice with his breakfast. I laughed about it and said I thought OJ might be a natural laxative or something. He laughed about it too and was like, "Nah, I always drink orange juice at home. I heard apple juice does that though." Then at lunch he drank 6 more cups of orange juice, the whole time I was just laughing to myself. Like 20 minutes later he had to go to the bathroom. Then like every 20 minutes after that he had to go again. We went to the RC (editor: I think that is the calling place at the MTC) for like 1 1/2 hours and he went like 12 times. It was hilarious. He ended up going to the bathroom like over 20 times that day. It definitely flushed out his system It was hilarious. We still made jokes about it all the time. So thanks for the hint Christopher.
They have like 5 extra front rows of seats saved at tonight's devotional, let's see if someone important is coming. On Sunday the Presiding Bishop of the Church came. He was a very good speaker. Most of the other people have been Emeritus members of the Quorum of the Seventies and our MTC director guy or something. Ok, its another Emeritus member of the Quorum of the Seventy speaking tonight. It seems like every devotional there are rumors of an apostle coming or something, it's kind of funny.
Ok, I love you all! If you have any specific questions about anything, just ask. When you do so many things every day it's hard to know what to write about sometimes.
Love,
Chase
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