This week I am writing my e-mail in Microsoft Word, then I will copy/paste it over. I always try to remember to copy my e-mails before I send them, but I’m usually just so relieved that I got through my whole e-mail without having any problems, so I click send quickly before anything happens. Unfortunately most things go wrong while you're sending. This is kind of interesting writing in Microsoft word…I get to see all my spelling and grammar errors. Myldsmail.net does not have any sort of spell check.
There are only a few interesting things that I left out of my recap letter last week. One of them being that I got to play racquetball again and it was a lot of fun. They also made a new rule that missionaries are no longer allowed to go to public gyms anymore, because it separates you from your companion and because missionaries are spending too much money on memberships. Me and Elder Taufa lucked out though. We have permission to keep using our gym because it’s a little private gym for the residence in our area only. It is kind of strange to hear the radio every morning and see TV’s, but I’m so tired in the mornings I don’t really pay attention to anything. So I’ll get to keep going to the gym as long as I’m in this area. I’m thinking I’ll be here for a while. I’ll be here for the rest of this one, and I’m pretty sure I’ll stay in this area and finish off Elder Taufa’s mission, then I’ll be here one more transfer at least to teach Elder Taufa’s replacement the area. So that’s like 3 more months or something. I’m very happy though.
Dad might be the only one to appreciate this, but Frank Beard from ZZ Top lives in our area. We just found that out…we have been driving past his house at least once a week. He has a huuuge property with big fields with lots of cattle. He has a big gate in front of his drive way and it says “Top 40” on it. The next time we see that gate open were going to drive down his driveway and go knock his door. I’ll let you know how it goes.
We just introduced our ward mission plan yesterday. Its really simple, but effective. Basically, our bishop challenged everyone in tithing settlement to invite 4-5 nonmembers into their homes every year. The goal is to have our ward have 1000 visits from nonmembers into their homes this year. I think it’s a genius plan. If members do this, everything else will fall into place. People will ask questions about pictures or whatever random things members have in their homes and it will spark an interest. More importantly than that, they will feel something in their homes that they don’t feel anywhere else. We’ve heard a lot of neat experiences already. To track the visits, our ward mission leader drew a house with 1000 bricks. Each time someone has a non-member visit, they get to fill in a brick with a marker, so by the end of the year hopefully all the bricks will be filled in and our house will be built. It’s a fun little idea. Our bishop loves the idea and he has full support for the plan. We have a really good relationship with the bishop, which is vital to be successful in an area. Part of that is due to us having breakfast with him every morning. I love that because we get to eat delicious food and we are helping progress the work.
Our investigators are all doing really well. We taught Tien the Word of Wisdom and she said she’s been living that for her whole life. We also taught the Word of Wisdom to the Dors and there were not really any problems, but Michelle (the mom) drinks decaf coffee. We were sure if that is included in the Word of Wisdom or not, so we talked to our mission president who told us we should just be safe and tell her we need to follow the word of wisdom completely and not drink any kind of coffee. I was a little bit worried, but when we told her, she was like, “Ok, I will stop drinking it.” It was no problem at all. A lot of our other good investigators have been sick with something that’s been going around here, so we haven’t been able to see them, but they are all doing well. David Majewski (the one that is going to be baptized after finishing the Gospel Principles book) is doing well too and hes getting pretty close to the end of the book.
This last week me and my companion have been on an ice cream crave for some reason. Ever since Mom sent me those peanut butter blossom cookies I’ve been on a cookie crave too. Last week Erika sent me a cookie pie (basically just a sheet of cookies on a circular pan) and I’ve been eating that on top of a bowl of ice cream almost every day. Together, me and Elder Taufa ate a gallon of ice cream last week. It was delicious. We bought another gallon today.
I tried some African food the other day. Maybe Steven has tried some also, but we had this stuff called Fufu with a big fat cow tongue and goat meat. Fufu is…well I think the best way to describe it is that it looks like Play-Do, tastes like it, and feels like it. I’m not sure what its made out of and I don’t think anyone really knows. My companion went on exchanges to another area and brought that back for me. I tried a tiny bite of each and it was gross. I don’t recommend it.
The doors fed us Haitian food again. They made fried plantains. They were pretty good, considering I don’t even really like bananas. I didn’t even know what plantains were until I came on my mission. I actually learned the word in Spanish, platano. So when I saw the plantain in the Dors I was like… Ohhh that’s a platano! They looked at me weird and I realized that was only a Spanish word. They also made a Papaya smoothie which was soooo good.
I think one of the coolest parts about serving a mission is that you get to talk to so many people from all around the world. They all have different backgrounds and their own unique stories. I counted it up the other day and I’ve talked to people from 28 different countries that I can remember. I’ve learned how to say hello in 15 different languages: English (obviously), Spanish, Vietnamese, Hindi, German, Korean, Russian, Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Tahitian, French, Hawaiian, Japanese, and Tagalog. Those are all the ones that I’ve written down.
I think one of the neatest guys that we visit is a guy named Brother Noah. He has really bad cancer all over so he never really leaves his home but he has some crazy stories. He started out by working for the CIA (he cant really talk about anything he did there), then he was in the first group of people to be a Navy SEAL. This was during the time of the Vietnam war so he had a lot of special ops missions over there. He has some crazy stories. He got wounded and had to quit that, so then he went on to develop and build nuclear weapons. So we always have a good time talking to him. He let us hold a real grenade.
Last week I also talked to a guy who was in the NFL draft. I’m not sure if he got drafted or what team he went to, but I’ll find out today.
Well that’s about all. Mother’s Day is coming up, which means I get to call home. We have church from 11-2, which I think means we end church at 12 California time (you might want to double check). So if you give me a time frame that I should call in, next week I’ll try to give you a more precise time I’ll be calling.
Ok, well it sounds like everything is going well at home. I think that was a genius idea to hide the beetle so you could play with it later. Oh yeah, I’m not sure if I wrote back to Nana and Bumpa when they sent me a birthday card, so could you ask and see? If not I will write them next week. Ok, I love you all!! Have a good time at testing! I always loved that week because we had no homework and they were always easy tests.
Love,
Chase
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Received Mon, April 20, 2009
Ugh...I just wrote a big long e-mail and it didn't send. This website definitely is not the greatest for sending e-mails. I might just start writing my e-mails in Microsoft word then copy and paste it over to send it to make sure I don't lose any more e-mails. I only have 10 minutes left so I'll just try to recap everything quickly.
We are doing really well...we've found some really good new people to teach that we are excited about. We've been working really well with the members. We never go to a set appointment without a member. The only time we teach lessons without members is when we are knocking on doors or talking to people in the streets. In those cases most people don't listen long enough to let us teach them a lesson. Its pretty interesting. This week we had 8 member present lessons and only 6 lessons w/o members. Usually people get tons of lessons w/o members and have a hard time teaching lessons with members. Its been really fun to work in this area.
I discovered a new drink called Apple Manzana. Its in a red soda can with a green apple on it or something. They have it all over the place here. They always have it at church events and any time someone is going to feed a lot of people. Its just like sparkling cider but not nearly as carbonated and its a lot sweeter and much more delicious.
I discovered a new snack as well. One day Sister Randall made some cookies and I decided instead of just eating a cookie I would get 2 cookies and put a big huge scoop of ice cream in the middle and have an ice cream sandwich. It was soooo good. Its just like those tollhouse cookie sandwiches, except they don't cost 2 dollars.
Everything is going really well. I cant believe I'm starting the 3rd week of my 6th transfer. Time flies out here. But like President Uchtdorf says, "Time flies, but you are the pilot."
Elder Taufa and I go to the gym every morning, which is pretty fun. We go to soccer every Saturday morning, where members bring their nonmember friends.
Ok, I have have to go.
I got that package of mail mom sent. The cookies were a little stale, but that's because I didn't open them right away. They were still delicious. No, its not a big deal to send that shirt home. I will try to do it next week. I'll send along my memory card full of pictures too.
Ok, I love you all!! I have to remember to start copying my e-mails before I send them!!
Grr...thats ok. I loved hearing how everyone was doing.
Love,
Chase
We are doing really well...we've found some really good new people to teach that we are excited about. We've been working really well with the members. We never go to a set appointment without a member. The only time we teach lessons without members is when we are knocking on doors or talking to people in the streets. In those cases most people don't listen long enough to let us teach them a lesson. Its pretty interesting. This week we had 8 member present lessons and only 6 lessons w/o members. Usually people get tons of lessons w/o members and have a hard time teaching lessons with members. Its been really fun to work in this area.
I discovered a new drink called Apple Manzana. Its in a red soda can with a green apple on it or something. They have it all over the place here. They always have it at church events and any time someone is going to feed a lot of people. Its just like sparkling cider but not nearly as carbonated and its a lot sweeter and much more delicious.
I discovered a new snack as well. One day Sister Randall made some cookies and I decided instead of just eating a cookie I would get 2 cookies and put a big huge scoop of ice cream in the middle and have an ice cream sandwich. It was soooo good. Its just like those tollhouse cookie sandwiches, except they don't cost 2 dollars.
Everything is going really well. I cant believe I'm starting the 3rd week of my 6th transfer. Time flies out here. But like President Uchtdorf says, "Time flies, but you are the pilot."
Elder Taufa and I go to the gym every morning, which is pretty fun. We go to soccer every Saturday morning, where members bring their nonmember friends.
Ok, I have have to go.
I got that package of mail mom sent. The cookies were a little stale, but that's because I didn't open them right away. They were still delicious. No, its not a big deal to send that shirt home. I will try to do it next week. I'll send along my memory card full of pictures too.
Ok, I love you all!! I have to remember to start copying my e-mails before I send them!!
Grr...thats ok. I loved hearing how everyone was doing.
Love,
Chase
Monday, April 13, 2009
Ok, Two Weeks In A Row! Received Monday, April 13, 2009
Well well well...I think I have another long letter for you guys again this week. I've been writing down lots of little random things that I've been forgetting to write about for the past few weeks, so this weeks letter might be full of random, but hopefully interesting things that have been on my mind.
But first, I will respond to the e-mail Mom sent. This might also be random too. I thought Dad's idea of hiding an egg in the fish tank was hilarious. Unfortunately I did not hide all my Easter eggs, I got too hungry one night and ate all the candy. It was all a delicious snack.
I am surprised at how many people here don't do family Easter egg hunts. Every time I asked people if they did an Easter egg hunt with their families they all said, no....we did go to that city Easter egg hunt, or a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. I always loved our Easter egg hunt.
I do get letters sometimes from friends that are on missions. My friend Joey who's in the Salt Lake City North mission writes me sometimes. Ryan Carreon wrote me (he's in McAllen Texas I think). I just found out my roommate from last year, Sam, is in France. Tony is doing good I think. I haven't heard from him in a while, but last I heard he was really close to leaving, so hopefully all is well.
Zak: The hermit/girls glove joke made me laugh and brought me back to when I was in Bro. Raddon's class. That was probably one of my most memorable and favorite memories about church. I was always excited to go to church because I wanted to hear the end of one of his stories from last week, or see if he would bring us mounds of candy or donuts. Hes an awesome guy. He took our quorum out fly fishing and did lots of fun stuff...unfortunately I had a soccer game during that fishing outing, but it would have been fun to go. Oh yeah, and the Arcadia Invitational track meet is actually a really famous track meet. A lot of people know about it. When I tell people about Arcadia, most people know it because of the track meet, our marching band, or because of the Arcadia mission.
Kylie: I am going to play softball today. Hopefully I'm good. My favorite part is batting...I don't like fielding that much. Most of the people I'm going to play with stink at softball though, so I will probably be good. Someone I'm teaching named Tom Fitchett use to be a professional softball catcher. He tells us stories every time we visit him about catching in the professional league and catching balls that were flying 110mph.
Quinn: The KKK is always interesting to learn about. There is a city down here that I've driven through a lot of times called Santa Fe which is where the KKK leader lives. A few years ago there was this story all over the news about how a black man came to Santa Fe to pump gas and these really bad, racist people grabbed him and tied him to the back of his truck and drove down the road dragging him. Its a pretty disgusting story. That road they drove down is called Highway 6 and I drive down it all the time. I tried to take a picture of the KKK guy's house as we were driving past, but I don't think its a very good picture. His house has all these crazy horse statues and weird stuff all over the front yard.
Ok....for Easter we ate dinner at the Randall's house. It was kind of a last minute thing because we had 2 dinner appointments that fell through at the last minute, but luckily the Randall's had a ton of food and they're super nice people so they invited us to eat with them. Wow...it was a good meal. We had honey baked turkey, honey baked ham, scalloped potatoes, all sorts of fruit, salad, and rolls. I ate a LOT. We have a ton left over so I'm going to be eating honey baked ham and turkey for the next week. I actually had some this morning.
On Saturday night we went to a less active member's home named Ricky Rich. He is a rapper from Louisiana. He doesn't really trust anyone and he usually doesn't let anyone into his home, but he's starting to trust us and he invited us to come in and dye eggs with his family. So of course we did. It was really fun and we got to meet his family and get to know them. The dye doesn't come off your fingers very easily, so I went to church the next day with green and blue fingers. It was pretty fun.
Here's some random facts about our area: I think I told you last week that knocking does not work well in this area. We've knocked almost every day for the past 6 weeks and we haven't found 1 good investigator. All of our investigators have been member referrals or they've seen the church and decided to come out on their own. That's actually the way its supposed to work, so its pretty neat, but knocking can get frustrating. We've been talking a lot to members about how we need their help in finding people and they've been awesome. I think I might have told you all that stuff already, but oh well. Our ward is really big. Each week we have over 300 people attend sacrament meeting. Yesterday we had 348. We cover portions of 3 different cities, so our area is huge. Most people here are attorneys or they work for the oil companies or they are accountants. The houses here are actually not expensive at all. The nice houses here all cost about $300,000. Here they have one of those set-ups where they have model homes and you choose a home and they build it on an empty lot for you. So everywhere they are basically 3 different types of houses. They cost either $160,000, $210,000, or $310,000. So housing is cheap here. This area is growing really fast though, so I'm sure priced will go up pretty fast within the next few years.
This area is really diverse too. Diverse in race and in religion. There are a lot of Muslim and Hindu people here. We cant really preach to the Muslim people because in a lot of their countries its legal to kill a person if they convert away from Islam. So pretty much every Muslim person avoids any sort of contact with us. We're actually teaching a Muslim guy right now, but I guess in his country (Bangladesh) its not so bad to change religions, plus hes never planning on going back there. Other than that, of course there are a LOT of baptist people, then there are catholic people. The Church of Christ is really big around here too.
Random stories:So..last week I saw some Bratwursts (basically big hot dogs) in Wal-Mart and I decided to buy them because I remember last year before a BYU football game someone made some and they were really good. I didn't really have any idea about how to cook them, but I knew I would figure it out. Well, on the back it gave you instructions on how to cook them. You could either cook them on the BBQ or in a skillet. I didn't know how to work the Randall's BBQ so I knew I had to cook it in the skillet. The only problem is that I had no idea what a skillet was. By the way, my companion bought some too, so we were both trying to figure this out. We looked in all the cupboards for something that looked like a "skillet." Well, soon Sister Randall came home and she saw us looking around for this skillet thing and so we turned around and asked her what the heck a skillet is. She laughed and laughed and told us its a frying pan. Well, now I know what a skillet is, but I have no idea why they don't just call it a frying pan.
Next story: I don't think I ever told you guys that I ran over a bird in Galveston. It was my very last week there. There are tons of annoying dumb birds there that nobody likes. I remember riding my bike past a fence where some birds were and the birds didn't fly away. As soon as I rode past I was like...wooow, I probably could have punched one of those birds if I wanted to. So since that day Me and my companion have joked about how dumb the birds were and how we could probably hit one on our bikes. So we would always swerve at the birds and they would always fly away at the last second. Well...a day or two before I left, there was a bunch of birds eating stuff in the grass and I swerved at the last second into the pack and rode right over a big pigeon. It still flew away but it was really dazed and couldn't fly straight. I actually ran over a bird on my bike! I don't know how many people can say they've done that.
More random things: So for lunch my favorite thing to cook is Tacos. I just brown some ground beef, put it in a tortilla, then put some cheese on and eat it. Its actually really good. Another thing I've just started to make is a breakfast burrito. I buy bacon, cook it up, then put in 4-5 eggs and scramble them. Then throw in the bacon, put it all in a tortilla and its a delicious breakfast burrito.
I remember before I left Dad taught me how to make omelets. I don't remember exactly how to do it, so I was wondering if Dad could e-mail me and remind me how to do it. I remember kind of how to do it, but I'm still not sure.
Lastly, thank you to Nana and to Mom for making the posts about my birthday. Christopher and Steven sent me a Thank-you card. It was a thank you for being born card apparently. I thought it was hilarious and it made me laugh a lot. Nana and Bumpa sent me a card, and also Grandma did. The Hix's sent me a card for Easter. I also got that letter from Mom with the print out of all the blog stuff. So I've had some pretty good mail.
Oh yeah, one more thing I had written down. Since my companion is from Tonga I've learned a lot of really interesting stuff about Tonga. I think I may have told you a lot about the things I learned in my first e-mail I sent after coming to Richmond. I know I said Tonga is mostly Mormon. like 60%ish. Well there's actually a law there where you cant work on Sunday. If you see someone mowing their lawn or something on Sunday, the cops will come and stop them. No stores or anything are allowed to be open on Sunday. Only the hospitals. If you need some medicine or something because someone is sick you just go to the hospital, because everything in the hospital is free. Rugby is the big sport there to play. Pretty much everyone plays it. My companion loooved rugby. He might come to BYU to play when he gets back. Hes going home on June 26.
Ok well that's about all. This was another loong e-mail, so I hope you all enjoyed it. I love you guys!!!
Love,
Chase
But first, I will respond to the e-mail Mom sent. This might also be random too. I thought Dad's idea of hiding an egg in the fish tank was hilarious. Unfortunately I did not hide all my Easter eggs, I got too hungry one night and ate all the candy. It was all a delicious snack.
I am surprised at how many people here don't do family Easter egg hunts. Every time I asked people if they did an Easter egg hunt with their families they all said, no....we did go to that city Easter egg hunt, or a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. I always loved our Easter egg hunt.
I do get letters sometimes from friends that are on missions. My friend Joey who's in the Salt Lake City North mission writes me sometimes. Ryan Carreon wrote me (he's in McAllen Texas I think). I just found out my roommate from last year, Sam, is in France. Tony is doing good I think. I haven't heard from him in a while, but last I heard he was really close to leaving, so hopefully all is well.
Zak: The hermit/girls glove joke made me laugh and brought me back to when I was in Bro. Raddon's class. That was probably one of my most memorable and favorite memories about church. I was always excited to go to church because I wanted to hear the end of one of his stories from last week, or see if he would bring us mounds of candy or donuts. Hes an awesome guy. He took our quorum out fly fishing and did lots of fun stuff...unfortunately I had a soccer game during that fishing outing, but it would have been fun to go. Oh yeah, and the Arcadia Invitational track meet is actually a really famous track meet. A lot of people know about it. When I tell people about Arcadia, most people know it because of the track meet, our marching band, or because of the Arcadia mission.
Kylie: I am going to play softball today. Hopefully I'm good. My favorite part is batting...I don't like fielding that much. Most of the people I'm going to play with stink at softball though, so I will probably be good. Someone I'm teaching named Tom Fitchett use to be a professional softball catcher. He tells us stories every time we visit him about catching in the professional league and catching balls that were flying 110mph.
Quinn: The KKK is always interesting to learn about. There is a city down here that I've driven through a lot of times called Santa Fe which is where the KKK leader lives. A few years ago there was this story all over the news about how a black man came to Santa Fe to pump gas and these really bad, racist people grabbed him and tied him to the back of his truck and drove down the road dragging him. Its a pretty disgusting story. That road they drove down is called Highway 6 and I drive down it all the time. I tried to take a picture of the KKK guy's house as we were driving past, but I don't think its a very good picture. His house has all these crazy horse statues and weird stuff all over the front yard.
Ok....for Easter we ate dinner at the Randall's house. It was kind of a last minute thing because we had 2 dinner appointments that fell through at the last minute, but luckily the Randall's had a ton of food and they're super nice people so they invited us to eat with them. Wow...it was a good meal. We had honey baked turkey, honey baked ham, scalloped potatoes, all sorts of fruit, salad, and rolls. I ate a LOT. We have a ton left over so I'm going to be eating honey baked ham and turkey for the next week. I actually had some this morning.
On Saturday night we went to a less active member's home named Ricky Rich. He is a rapper from Louisiana. He doesn't really trust anyone and he usually doesn't let anyone into his home, but he's starting to trust us and he invited us to come in and dye eggs with his family. So of course we did. It was really fun and we got to meet his family and get to know them. The dye doesn't come off your fingers very easily, so I went to church the next day with green and blue fingers. It was pretty fun.
Here's some random facts about our area: I think I told you last week that knocking does not work well in this area. We've knocked almost every day for the past 6 weeks and we haven't found 1 good investigator. All of our investigators have been member referrals or they've seen the church and decided to come out on their own. That's actually the way its supposed to work, so its pretty neat, but knocking can get frustrating. We've been talking a lot to members about how we need their help in finding people and they've been awesome. I think I might have told you all that stuff already, but oh well. Our ward is really big. Each week we have over 300 people attend sacrament meeting. Yesterday we had 348. We cover portions of 3 different cities, so our area is huge. Most people here are attorneys or they work for the oil companies or they are accountants. The houses here are actually not expensive at all. The nice houses here all cost about $300,000. Here they have one of those set-ups where they have model homes and you choose a home and they build it on an empty lot for you. So everywhere they are basically 3 different types of houses. They cost either $160,000, $210,000, or $310,000. So housing is cheap here. This area is growing really fast though, so I'm sure priced will go up pretty fast within the next few years.
This area is really diverse too. Diverse in race and in religion. There are a lot of Muslim and Hindu people here. We cant really preach to the Muslim people because in a lot of their countries its legal to kill a person if they convert away from Islam. So pretty much every Muslim person avoids any sort of contact with us. We're actually teaching a Muslim guy right now, but I guess in his country (Bangladesh) its not so bad to change religions, plus hes never planning on going back there. Other than that, of course there are a LOT of baptist people, then there are catholic people. The Church of Christ is really big around here too.
Random stories:So..last week I saw some Bratwursts (basically big hot dogs) in Wal-Mart and I decided to buy them because I remember last year before a BYU football game someone made some and they were really good. I didn't really have any idea about how to cook them, but I knew I would figure it out. Well, on the back it gave you instructions on how to cook them. You could either cook them on the BBQ or in a skillet. I didn't know how to work the Randall's BBQ so I knew I had to cook it in the skillet. The only problem is that I had no idea what a skillet was. By the way, my companion bought some too, so we were both trying to figure this out. We looked in all the cupboards for something that looked like a "skillet." Well, soon Sister Randall came home and she saw us looking around for this skillet thing and so we turned around and asked her what the heck a skillet is. She laughed and laughed and told us its a frying pan. Well, now I know what a skillet is, but I have no idea why they don't just call it a frying pan.
Next story: I don't think I ever told you guys that I ran over a bird in Galveston. It was my very last week there. There are tons of annoying dumb birds there that nobody likes. I remember riding my bike past a fence where some birds were and the birds didn't fly away. As soon as I rode past I was like...wooow, I probably could have punched one of those birds if I wanted to. So since that day Me and my companion have joked about how dumb the birds were and how we could probably hit one on our bikes. So we would always swerve at the birds and they would always fly away at the last second. Well...a day or two before I left, there was a bunch of birds eating stuff in the grass and I swerved at the last second into the pack and rode right over a big pigeon. It still flew away but it was really dazed and couldn't fly straight. I actually ran over a bird on my bike! I don't know how many people can say they've done that.
More random things: So for lunch my favorite thing to cook is Tacos. I just brown some ground beef, put it in a tortilla, then put some cheese on and eat it. Its actually really good. Another thing I've just started to make is a breakfast burrito. I buy bacon, cook it up, then put in 4-5 eggs and scramble them. Then throw in the bacon, put it all in a tortilla and its a delicious breakfast burrito.
I remember before I left Dad taught me how to make omelets. I don't remember exactly how to do it, so I was wondering if Dad could e-mail me and remind me how to do it. I remember kind of how to do it, but I'm still not sure.
Lastly, thank you to Nana and to Mom for making the posts about my birthday. Christopher and Steven sent me a Thank-you card. It was a thank you for being born card apparently. I thought it was hilarious and it made me laugh a lot. Nana and Bumpa sent me a card, and also Grandma did. The Hix's sent me a card for Easter. I also got that letter from Mom with the print out of all the blog stuff. So I've had some pretty good mail.
Oh yeah, one more thing I had written down. Since my companion is from Tonga I've learned a lot of really interesting stuff about Tonga. I think I may have told you a lot about the things I learned in my first e-mail I sent after coming to Richmond. I know I said Tonga is mostly Mormon. like 60%ish. Well there's actually a law there where you cant work on Sunday. If you see someone mowing their lawn or something on Sunday, the cops will come and stop them. No stores or anything are allowed to be open on Sunday. Only the hospitals. If you need some medicine or something because someone is sick you just go to the hospital, because everything in the hospital is free. Rugby is the big sport there to play. Pretty much everyone plays it. My companion loooved rugby. He might come to BYU to play when he gets back. Hes going home on June 26.
Ok well that's about all. This was another loong e-mail, so I hope you all enjoyed it. I love you guys!!!
Love,
Chase
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Yea, It Came! Received Mon, April 6, 2009
Wow...thank you for all the e-mails. And I apologize for not being able to e-mail last week. We drove all the way to the library just to find out the computers were broken. We waited like 2 hours then they were finally fixed, but when we got on the computer to e-mail, we couldn't log into our e-mail website. We eventually had to leave. Normally we would just go the next day, but we live so far away from everything, so we couldn't go do it. We have a certain amount of miles we can drive every month and we were already over by 100, so we couldn't drive way out to the library. My next plan was to use the Randall's computer. They were really busy that whole week and so were we and we didn't even see each other until Saturday. By that time I figured I'd just wait til Monday to e-mail.
SO...here I am. Lets see...we got our transfer calls this morning and me and my companion are both staying. I was really happy about that because I don't really have the whole area down yet and were doing really well together. Last week we taught the Dors and talked to them about baptism and they said they want to get baptized on May 16th. The father lives out in Miami and he wanted to be here for the baptism and that is the first time he could make it out. I was really happy to hear how supportive he was of his family. It would be really cool if missionaries in Miami could teach him out there so he could possibly get baptized with his family. Unfortunately he works 7 days a week and there are other complications so that missionaries cant come. We will teach him when he's down here too.
David Majewski is still planning on getting baptized when he finishes the Gospel Principles book and hes about 1/2 way done right now.
Tom Fitchett is praying about a baptismal date and we will see him again on Thursday and see if hes ready to choose a date.
Then there's the Vietnamese lady named Tien who is going to get baptized in a week or two depending on when we can visit her.So that's 7 people that are getting ready to get baptized!! We are doing really really good. The hard part is finding new people to teach. Unfortunately most of the people here are comfortable where they are and don't think they really need anything else. After thinking and praying about it a lot the thing that keeps on coming to mind is to use the amazing ward members that we have. So this last week or so we have been visiting a lot of members and sharing scriptures about missionary work and teaching the importance of missionary work. Pretty much everyone who lives here knows that knocking doors doesn't work well in this area so they all understand how important it is for them to open their mouths and talk to the people around them. We have gotten a few referrals so we'll see how it goes. I know that if we keep trying and put in all our effort we will find people to teach.
I did get my birthday package and the other package. I loved the tie and I wore it that day. Buying a new shirt was an excellent idea and I was actually thinking of asking for another short sleeve shirt or two, but there was one problem. I've found that the 15 1/2 size shirts are a little too small and I feel like I'm getting choked when I wear them, so I've been wearing all my size 16 shirts. So...do you think I should send it back home so you can exchange it or just keep it with me? I was also wondering if you could send some more ankle high socks. Somehow I've only got 1 pair of those left and about 3 normal length socks. I think other than that I'm doing really well.
How did you guys like conference?? I love it. I liked so many different talks and I have a lot of favorite speakers, but I think my favorite speaker is President Uchtdorf. When he speaks its always filled with power and with passion. He always uses his hands and you can tell what hes saying really means a lot to him. Hes also very confident when he speaks. I think the talk he gave in the priesthood session about Nehemiah was my favorite. Conference was definitely a good birthday present.
I discovered a new favorite cereal. Surprisingly and for the first time in my life, it is a Malt-O-Meal brand of cereal. Its called Muffin Tops. Its just like cinnamon toast crunch, but its blueberry flavored. At first I didn't really like it a ton, but like a week later I started craving it and I've eaten it every day since then. I also started having a craving for donuts. Every single night we always drove past the donut place right when it closed, then one day last week we were in the area when it was open. We went to this big donut place here called Shipleys Donuts. The donuts there were SO expensive. For a maple bar it was like $1.19. At home those are $0.60. I got a normal circular one and it was really good but I don't think I'll go back there again. Coincidentally, the day later we ate breakfast at our bishops house and he fed us donuts. That was one good breakfast. We eat breakfast at our bishop's house every Saturday morning and talk about investigators and everything else, then we go and play soccer with a bunch of members from the church and their friends. The youth are really good about bringing nonmember friends to come play, so every week there's several nonmembers there and it is a really good missionary opportunity. Plus we get to play soccer, so its really fun.
I loved that post about burgers that Mom sent me. I think I'd have to consider myself a burger connoisseur(however you spell it)...well at least bacon burger connoisseur.
SO...here I am. Lets see...we got our transfer calls this morning and me and my companion are both staying. I was really happy about that because I don't really have the whole area down yet and were doing really well together. Last week we taught the Dors and talked to them about baptism and they said they want to get baptized on May 16th. The father lives out in Miami and he wanted to be here for the baptism and that is the first time he could make it out. I was really happy to hear how supportive he was of his family. It would be really cool if missionaries in Miami could teach him out there so he could possibly get baptized with his family. Unfortunately he works 7 days a week and there are other complications so that missionaries cant come. We will teach him when he's down here too.
David Majewski is still planning on getting baptized when he finishes the Gospel Principles book and hes about 1/2 way done right now.
Tom Fitchett is praying about a baptismal date and we will see him again on Thursday and see if hes ready to choose a date.
Then there's the Vietnamese lady named Tien who is going to get baptized in a week or two depending on when we can visit her.So that's 7 people that are getting ready to get baptized!! We are doing really really good. The hard part is finding new people to teach. Unfortunately most of the people here are comfortable where they are and don't think they really need anything else. After thinking and praying about it a lot the thing that keeps on coming to mind is to use the amazing ward members that we have. So this last week or so we have been visiting a lot of members and sharing scriptures about missionary work and teaching the importance of missionary work. Pretty much everyone who lives here knows that knocking doors doesn't work well in this area so they all understand how important it is for them to open their mouths and talk to the people around them. We have gotten a few referrals so we'll see how it goes. I know that if we keep trying and put in all our effort we will find people to teach.
I did get my birthday package and the other package. I loved the tie and I wore it that day. Buying a new shirt was an excellent idea and I was actually thinking of asking for another short sleeve shirt or two, but there was one problem. I've found that the 15 1/2 size shirts are a little too small and I feel like I'm getting choked when I wear them, so I've been wearing all my size 16 shirts. So...do you think I should send it back home so you can exchange it or just keep it with me? I was also wondering if you could send some more ankle high socks. Somehow I've only got 1 pair of those left and about 3 normal length socks. I think other than that I'm doing really well.
How did you guys like conference?? I love it. I liked so many different talks and I have a lot of favorite speakers, but I think my favorite speaker is President Uchtdorf. When he speaks its always filled with power and with passion. He always uses his hands and you can tell what hes saying really means a lot to him. Hes also very confident when he speaks. I think the talk he gave in the priesthood session about Nehemiah was my favorite. Conference was definitely a good birthday present.
I discovered a new favorite cereal. Surprisingly and for the first time in my life, it is a Malt-O-Meal brand of cereal. Its called Muffin Tops. Its just like cinnamon toast crunch, but its blueberry flavored. At first I didn't really like it a ton, but like a week later I started craving it and I've eaten it every day since then. I also started having a craving for donuts. Every single night we always drove past the donut place right when it closed, then one day last week we were in the area when it was open. We went to this big donut place here called Shipleys Donuts. The donuts there were SO expensive. For a maple bar it was like $1.19. At home those are $0.60. I got a normal circular one and it was really good but I don't think I'll go back there again. Coincidentally, the day later we ate breakfast at our bishops house and he fed us donuts. That was one good breakfast. We eat breakfast at our bishop's house every Saturday morning and talk about investigators and everything else, then we go and play soccer with a bunch of members from the church and their friends. The youth are really good about bringing nonmember friends to come play, so every week there's several nonmembers there and it is a really good missionary opportunity. Plus we get to play soccer, so its really fun.
I loved that post about burgers that Mom sent me. I think I'd have to consider myself a burger connoisseur(however you spell it)...well at least bacon burger connoisseur.
- The #1 bacon burger is at Chili's.
- #2 is this place here in Texas called 9ers. They have pound burgers and all these different kinds, but their bacon burger is awesome.
- #3...maybe Western Bacon Cheeseburger at Carls Jr. That burger is so good but the problem is its too greasy.
- #4 Burger King's Sourdough Bacon Cheeseburger.
- #5 Jack in the Box's Ultimate Bacon Cheeseburger.
- Burger Supreme has a decent bacon burger as well.
- In N Out is up there too for overall best hamburger, even though it doesn't have bacon.
Ok, I've got 2 funny stories before I end this long e-mail. The first story is an embarrassing/funny story. Last week one day my companion told me I had dirt or something on my chin. I tried to brush it off but it wouldn't come off. So when I looked in the mirror I saw it was a bruise. After thinking for a while I remembered what had happened. The day before I was trying to put my bike on our bike rack and it kept getting stuck on some strap. So I got frustrated and yanked really hard, then it broke and my fist came flying back and I hit myself in the chin. It must have looked really funny, but I didn't think much of it and kind of forgot about it. For like 4 days now I've had this knuckle sized bruise on my chin that everyone keeps asking me about. I just tell everyone that I upper-cutted myself. Don't worry, i took a picture of it. By the way, I'm planning on sending my memory card home pretty soon.
Story #2: Last week we had a huuuge thunderstorm. This was our day to do our weekly planning so we were sitting inside watching all the lightning and listening to the huge booms of thunder. It just so happens that this was at the end of the month and we had almost no miles left, so we were planning on biking that day. Instead of wussing out and deciding to just drive, we actually both got excited and finished planning as fast as we could so we could go out and bike in the storm. We drove over to the subdivision where we were planning on working, got out of our car, got our bikes off the bike rack, and started biking down the street. The people who saw us get out of our car and get on our bikes in the rain probably thought we were crazy. It was soooo much fun. We were both completely drenched after a couple minutes. There was no point in trying to dodge puddles because we were already as wet as we could get, so we just rode straight through the puddles. Before I left you might remember Christopher gave me these cool rubber shoe cover to put on my shoes to keep dry. In this case it actually did the opposite. At first it was working really well, but when I went through big puddles and after my pants got soaking wet the water ran down my leg into my shoes and the rubber covers kept all the water inside. So I was walking around literally with shoes full of water. I dumped out all the water when I got home and it was pretty funny how much water came out. It was all fun.
Well...I this was a pretty long e-mail so I hope every one enjoys it. Unfortunately I randomly got a nose bleed while I was writing this so it cut out part of my time and I'm not going to have time to write to anyone else. But thank you everyone for sending the happy birthday e-mails. I'm probably going to print them all out and write back to everyone next week. I love you all and I hope you have a good spring break!!!
Love,Chase
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Nothing Received!
Just to let you all know, I did NOT forget to post Chase's letter. We did not receive an e-mail on Monday. Who knows why. I am sure all is well, it's just a wait and see. Maybe we will receive another post card on Friday like the last time he couldn't e-mail on his P-day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)