Dear Family,
This has been one interesting week. I was only in Richmond last week on Wednesday, Thursday morning, and Saturday night.
Starting Monday when P-day ended (6pm) I went on exchanges to Rosenberg (nearby city in our district). Everything was going well until the next day I woke up not feeling well at all. That was one of the worst stomach aches I’ve ever felt. It felt like someone was wringing out my intestines. The Elder I was with had just gotten over a stomach virus that made him sick for a week, so I was afraid I was going to get that. All the food in my stomach came out whichever way it could (I wont go into detail), then after my stomach was emptied I started feeling a little better. But to make matters worse, as soon as I started to feel a little better the Elder I was with all the sudden got a hernia. His stomach had not been feeling right since he was sick, then that day finally he got a hernia, so some organ fell out of place and was poking his skin out to make a little bump. Gross. So my sick self drove him all the way over to a doctor in a couple cities over and they set up an appointment with a surgeon so the surgeon could decide what they needed to do. He is going to find out this week sometime if he’ll have to go home to get the surgery. But good news is that I was feeling much better by nighttime. I got a powerade slush at Sonic and that was my healing potion as usual. It helped rehydrate me and that was one thing I felt like my stomach could hold down.
Wednesday we did normal missionary work. Elder Taufa said good-bye to a lot of people. Thursday morning I dropped him off at the mission home. That was really weird saying good-bye knowing we would never see each other again. We became really good friends. Most people get sick of each other after staying together 3 transfers, but we weren’t. His family moved to New Zealand, so that is where he’s going home to. He’s never even been there before. I heard that he got stuck in LA with some sort of visa problems, so he’s been waiting around til today before he could leave.From Thursday til Saturday when we had our transfer meeting I was with our Zone Leader, Elder Fiefia, whose companion also went home. He is a good missionary…we had a good time. He is also Tongan, but he grew up in West Jordan (maybe South Jordan…one of those places), Utah. Then we had our transfer meeting.
After transfer meeting we had our little surprise party for the Allreds. Everyone in the mission came and hid in the gym while we were having our transfer meeting in the sacrament room. At the end they opened the divider thing for the overflow and everyone surprised him. It was fun…there was a slide show and a couple people sang songs, then our zone and another zone did the Haka. I got someone to film that one, so you’ll get to see that one when I send pictures home.
My new companion is Elder Cambell. He is from Layton Utah and hes been on his mission for about 18 months. He is our new district leader. He is a cool guy…I think we will have a good transfer. In my interview with president we talked about the area and he asked me what I think needs to happen so that we could keep having success there. I told him that all the area needs is a good missionary who is ready to work and ready to work with the members. I’m probably going to get moved out of this area at the end of this transfer and probably go back to Spanish, so I knew the Elder coming here would be taking over the area when I leave. It would be so sad to see someone lazy come take over the area and see it all fall apart. President Allred honored my request, so now Elder Cambell is here. He reminds me a lot of my first companion, Elder Nielson. He’s pretty tall and has a pretty deep voice and he talks really slow. And he’s one of those people ALWAYS has a smile on his face. It sounds like he’s always about to start laughing…its pretty funny. He is a good missionary though.
It is pretty exhausting to take over the area though. I have to do all the planning by myself and decide everything to do until my companion starts to learn the area so he can help. Yesterday felt like 3 days in 1. I love going home at night and being exhausted though…that means I worked hard. When I work hard I feel good.
My random story from the kitchen for this week is that I made donuts! Someone in Elder Fiefia’s area made donuts for him and him and his companion on Wednesday, so we tried making them on when we went on exchanges together on Thursday. So we made them on Thursday, then I made some on Saturday. They are sooo good. I think they are pretty unhealthy though. All you have to do is buy some biscuits (we use some Pillsbury kind…I don’t remember the name). And you poke a hole in all the biscuits so they’ll look like donuts, then you pour a bunch of oil in a frying pan and fry them up when the oil gets pretty hot. It probably only takes a minute to cook both sides and they look just like donuts. Then to make the frosting (this is the part I haven’t gotten down yet) you put a bunch of powdered sugar, some butter, some milk, and some cinnamon in a bowl and mix it together. You can replace cinnamon with whatever flavor you want your frosting to be, but cinnamon is good. We’ve found the best way is to rip the donut in half and dip it in the frosting. Its so good.
Responses to Mom’s e-mail:Yes I got the package with the Apple Jacks and the shirt…the Apple Jacks have already been eaten.The story about CJ & ST’s roommate who just got baptizes is very interesting. I have this CD called Conversion of a Catholic and that’s basically the story the guy on there told. He was studying to become a priest, but went to Idaho to take a couple extra classes and one of his roommates there was LDS. The story is a really good story. Maybe I’ll copy it and send it home some time…maybe the next time I send pictures. It’s a really good missionary CD. Yesterday in church before we started our elders quorum class our elder’s quorum president announced that Brazil just scored their first goal against the US and they could possibly be making a comeback. That is funny that they turned out winning.Last comment: I have never heard of a Trek til I came on my mission. A lot of missionaries here have a Trek CD that have a lot of songs that people listen to on their trek things or something. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it is a good CD.
OK that’s about all for this week. Thank you for the e-mail Mom…it was full of good stories. I think that all the stories are good, even if I don’t make comments about each of them. Have a good week, I love you all!!! I am jealous that you all get to go swimming!
Love,
Chase
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Received Mon June 22, 2009
Dear Family,
It looks as though Mom forgot to send out an e-mail this week!! Either that or it just didn’t send. That is ok though, I got a good letter from home 2 days ago.
It is weird how mail works here. Some mail takes 10 days to get here and other mail takes 3 days, I’m not sure why. But I got the letter with pictures from the beach on it. I must admit that I am a little jealous…that beach looked nice. The weather here has been hoooot. The weather forecast this week is all between 95-100. Even though we aren't biking, the heat is still really bad. Every time we get into our car its like 115+ degrees and by the time it cools down were at our next stop.
Happy Father’s Day yesterday Dad!! Its hard to remember these things before they happen because when I’m writing e-mails I’m only thinking about my past week, not what's going to happen in the future.
We had dinner at our stake presidents house for father’s day…it was good. They are awesome people.
I’m going to go down my list of things I wrote down to write about. First I will talk about last week’s P-day. It was a pretty good one. We toured a Jehovah's’s Witness Assembly Hall. This is their version of a conference center or a stake center. There are only 3 in Texas and not that many in the whole world. Their normal meeting places are called Kingdom Halls. It was all pretty interesting. It was so surprising to me to see how much we have in common with them. Their beliefs have kind of been evolving over time and they have been becoming more and more like ours. Even a lot of the organizational things they have are similar to ours. At the end I asked the lady giving us the tour if I could see one of their Watch Towers (basically like our Ensigns, that’s what they use a lot to tract with). She opened a cupboard with a bunch of their books, so we all grabbed something to look through. It's amazing how even though a lot of their beliefs might seem similar to ours, they are so…different. The whole backbone to their religion is completely different. They are taught not to pray about whether or not things are true, they believe everything is in the Bible and you have to use your own intellect. One of their little books that we got is called Reasoning with Scripture and it was basically one of their bashing books. It has a huge list of different topics and sets up bashing scenarios…it would say “If someone says…..You might say…. “ It was all very interesting. The lady who took us on the tour was nice, so that was good.
After that we got together with another zone and we had lunch and we all learned the Haka (the war dance that Polynesians do before sports games). We are holding a surprise party for our mission president on Saturday, so we’re going to perform it there. It was really fun to learn. We got really good at it by the end, but I’m not sure how much of it we will all still remember by Saturday. I will try to get someone to record it.
At church yesterday David Majewski got the Aaronic Priesthood. That was awesome to see. He is going to bless the sacrament next week. Mendy Dor also gave a talk in sacrament meeting. We helped her brainstorm a little, but she did most of it herself and it was very good. Her sister will speak next week. It was also a sad day because a lot of people we invited to church didn’t come. We found someone good to teach for the first time ever tracting the other day. We talked to a bunch of people in a park who were watching their kids, and this lady is genuinely interested and is looking for a good church. She said she would come, but she didn’t. I’m just hoping she didn’t get anti’d. Maria also didn’t come to church…she is reeeally depressed again. She had to put one of her dogs to sleep and her dogs are like her kids. She doesn’t even know what day it is or what time it is whenever we stop by. She is planning on moving out and living with her newly married daughter in Washington in September, so hopefully that will be better for her. She said she wants to get baptized in Washington, so that is good. We will teach her and get her prepared here and she will get baptized there. I don’t really care where it happens as long as she gets baptized and keeps living the gospel…that is the only way she will be happy.
I found a good scripture this week. It is one of the first Isaiah scriptures that I like and fully understand and can use in teaching. It is in Isaiah 5:20 or 2 Nephi 15:20. I don’t remember word for word what it says, but it says Woe unto them that call good evil and evil good, that put light for darkness and darkness for like and put sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet. Basically its describing our world today. People are saying that bad things are good and they are saying that good things are bad. As missionaries we are out amongst a lot of people with all sorts of standards, and this is definitely true. As a result, there are so many people that are sad and depressed and don’t know what to do. I just like that scripture because it reminds me that I always need to do what I know is right, even if others aren't doing the same.
Well, my companion is leaving on Thursday morning. I will get my new companion on Saturday, so by next week I’ll have an update. Our mission president is leaving..next week or something, I don’t remember. Maybe he will be gone by next week too. I am actually pretty excited for all the changes. My companion is ready to go home…this last transfer has been difficult for him. He isn't sad or anything like that, its just hard for him to focus 100% on the mission know hes about to leave in a few days and not being able to move very much makes it even harder. He’s done really really well though. He is a great missionary. I have learned a ton from him.
Ok that is all for this week! Have a good week! I love you all!!
Love,
Chase
It looks as though Mom forgot to send out an e-mail this week!! Either that or it just didn’t send. That is ok though, I got a good letter from home 2 days ago.
It is weird how mail works here. Some mail takes 10 days to get here and other mail takes 3 days, I’m not sure why. But I got the letter with pictures from the beach on it. I must admit that I am a little jealous…that beach looked nice. The weather here has been hoooot. The weather forecast this week is all between 95-100. Even though we aren't biking, the heat is still really bad. Every time we get into our car its like 115+ degrees and by the time it cools down were at our next stop.
Happy Father’s Day yesterday Dad!! Its hard to remember these things before they happen because when I’m writing e-mails I’m only thinking about my past week, not what's going to happen in the future.
We had dinner at our stake presidents house for father’s day…it was good. They are awesome people.
I’m going to go down my list of things I wrote down to write about. First I will talk about last week’s P-day. It was a pretty good one. We toured a Jehovah's’s Witness Assembly Hall. This is their version of a conference center or a stake center. There are only 3 in Texas and not that many in the whole world. Their normal meeting places are called Kingdom Halls. It was all pretty interesting. It was so surprising to me to see how much we have in common with them. Their beliefs have kind of been evolving over time and they have been becoming more and more like ours. Even a lot of the organizational things they have are similar to ours. At the end I asked the lady giving us the tour if I could see one of their Watch Towers (basically like our Ensigns, that’s what they use a lot to tract with). She opened a cupboard with a bunch of their books, so we all grabbed something to look through. It's amazing how even though a lot of their beliefs might seem similar to ours, they are so…different. The whole backbone to their religion is completely different. They are taught not to pray about whether or not things are true, they believe everything is in the Bible and you have to use your own intellect. One of their little books that we got is called Reasoning with Scripture and it was basically one of their bashing books. It has a huge list of different topics and sets up bashing scenarios…it would say “If someone says…..You might say…. “ It was all very interesting. The lady who took us on the tour was nice, so that was good.
After that we got together with another zone and we had lunch and we all learned the Haka (the war dance that Polynesians do before sports games). We are holding a surprise party for our mission president on Saturday, so we’re going to perform it there. It was really fun to learn. We got really good at it by the end, but I’m not sure how much of it we will all still remember by Saturday. I will try to get someone to record it.
At church yesterday David Majewski got the Aaronic Priesthood. That was awesome to see. He is going to bless the sacrament next week. Mendy Dor also gave a talk in sacrament meeting. We helped her brainstorm a little, but she did most of it herself and it was very good. Her sister will speak next week. It was also a sad day because a lot of people we invited to church didn’t come. We found someone good to teach for the first time ever tracting the other day. We talked to a bunch of people in a park who were watching their kids, and this lady is genuinely interested and is looking for a good church. She said she would come, but she didn’t. I’m just hoping she didn’t get anti’d. Maria also didn’t come to church…she is reeeally depressed again. She had to put one of her dogs to sleep and her dogs are like her kids. She doesn’t even know what day it is or what time it is whenever we stop by. She is planning on moving out and living with her newly married daughter in Washington in September, so hopefully that will be better for her. She said she wants to get baptized in Washington, so that is good. We will teach her and get her prepared here and she will get baptized there. I don’t really care where it happens as long as she gets baptized and keeps living the gospel…that is the only way she will be happy.
I found a good scripture this week. It is one of the first Isaiah scriptures that I like and fully understand and can use in teaching. It is in Isaiah 5:20 or 2 Nephi 15:20. I don’t remember word for word what it says, but it says Woe unto them that call good evil and evil good, that put light for darkness and darkness for like and put sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet. Basically its describing our world today. People are saying that bad things are good and they are saying that good things are bad. As missionaries we are out amongst a lot of people with all sorts of standards, and this is definitely true. As a result, there are so many people that are sad and depressed and don’t know what to do. I just like that scripture because it reminds me that I always need to do what I know is right, even if others aren't doing the same.
Well, my companion is leaving on Thursday morning. I will get my new companion on Saturday, so by next week I’ll have an update. Our mission president is leaving..next week or something, I don’t remember. Maybe he will be gone by next week too. I am actually pretty excited for all the changes. My companion is ready to go home…this last transfer has been difficult for him. He isn't sad or anything like that, its just hard for him to focus 100% on the mission know hes about to leave in a few days and not being able to move very much makes it even harder. He’s done really really well though. He is a great missionary. I have learned a ton from him.
Ok that is all for this week! Have a good week! I love you all!!
Love,
Chase
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Received Mon June 15, 2009
Dear Family,
I have a couple things written down to write about this week, so I’ll go down the list and go from there. David Majewski was baptized and confirmed on Saturday. Bishop Jones did both the baptism and confirmation. It was a really good baptismal service. It was attended very well and it was a very spiritual experience. That is no surprise though because was very prepared and he has been coming to church for a long time and has a lot of friends. The confirmation was especially powerful. He is going to accomplish a lot of great things and be a very good member. I might even be able to go to the temple with him and his wife when they get sealed in a year. That was definitely the highlight of the week.
It seems like I’m always writing about food, but I guess that’s what interests me the most. I have a new lunch item I love to make. The isle Elder Taufa and I spent the most time at is the meat isle. We both love meat but we both don’t really know how to cook any of it, so we do a lot of experimenting. Last weeks experiment was very successful. I bought chuck tender steaks, which cost $3.60. There were 4 circular normal steaks. I threw 2 in a frying pan, put on some seasoned salt, pepper, and a little bit of garlic salt also. It only took a few minutes and it was really good. I experimented with one of them by cutting criss crosses on one steak and putting some masterpiece barbecue sauce on it and letting it cook. It was really good. I cooked the next 2 using a George Foreman grill. Those things are awesome. They cook both sides at the same time and all the fat drains right out into a little plastic container. It took less than 10 min to cook it too. It was delicious. I got to eat steak for 2 meals for $3.60. I bought a big can of Pringles chips for a buck too and I eat that with my steaks. I’m planning of buying more of the same kind of meat today. While I was cooking, I was wondering what kind of seasoning we use on our steaks at home. I’ve been experimenting with garlic salt and seasoned salt, and I think I might actually like garlic salt better. So…what would you recommend using to season those little steak things I buy?
Last week one of our dinner appointments canceled on us, so the Randall’s took us to Bamboo Village (the Chinese buffet place I went to a few weeks ago). We told them it was good, so they wanted to go try it out with us. It was deeelicious. The day before Elder Taufa was gone on exchanges and he told me how he got to go to Joe’s Crab Shack and eat a ton of crab. Well it just so happened that it was crab night at Bamboo Village, so lets just say I ate a lot. I was in a seafood mood. I had 7-8 crab legs, fried catfish, shrimp, salmon, ribs, rolls, and fruit to top off my stomach. I think it only cost like 9 bucks too.
Here's a random fact: I have recently started putting ice in my cereal. One time I was really thirsty and I was eating cereal and the milk wasn’t quenching my thirst, so I put 2 ice cubes in there and it was perfect. I like it to be reeeally cold. I think I might have seen Mom do that before.
Next random thing: I got a CD from a missionary in the mission and theres' a really good song on it. I believe it is called Dream Big, and I think Ryan Shube sings it. That is my favorite song as of right now. I think it has a good message. I heard it originally because the assistants had it playing for one of their powerpoints/trainings they did at zone conference this week. We happened to be at the office the next day, so he copied me the CD right there. My favorite CD is probably the Joseph Smith Tribute CD…the one Steven was referring to when I called home on Mothers Day.
I mentioned we had zone conference this week…it was just like normal: very good, but really long. It was President and Sister Allred’s last zone conference so they did a lot of reminiscing and talking about the Saylin’s (new mission president) coming.
I did get a letter from Mom with the pictures of Chad Johnson and the guesses for the NBA Championship game. That was a really good letter. Good pictures and good, interesting information. Thank you Mom.
Elder Pedersen is still in the mission; he finishes January 23 or something. He is good with the camera…he likes to take pictures or movies every single day. He has like 3 memory cards he's constantly sending home and I don’t know where.
I think that having several people speak about their favorite scriptures was a really good idea for a sacrament meeting. We use all those scriptures all the time in missionary work. We use the one in Mosiah 18 all the time for baptism…it talks about “what have ye against being baptized.” We use the Alma 32 scripture all the time as well. We read that whole chapter with a lot of our investigators. It helps them understand faith and understand they have to keep learning and endure to the end. Alma 41:10 is something that I’ve seen with my own eyes over and over again. Mom’s scripture in 2 Nephi 5 was good too..I have never thought about it that way.
New update on my companion’s knee. He is going to have surgery when he gets back to New Zealand. He wears a knee brace and he can walk as much as he feels comfortable. We don’t get to work full days, but we work from after lunch till night time. So it is a pretty good days work.
Ok that’s all for this week. Everything is still going good. The end of the transfer is in less than 2 weeks! That will be an exciting time. Thank you for all the mail Mom!! I love you all!
Love,
Chase
I have a couple things written down to write about this week, so I’ll go down the list and go from there. David Majewski was baptized and confirmed on Saturday. Bishop Jones did both the baptism and confirmation. It was a really good baptismal service. It was attended very well and it was a very spiritual experience. That is no surprise though because was very prepared and he has been coming to church for a long time and has a lot of friends. The confirmation was especially powerful. He is going to accomplish a lot of great things and be a very good member. I might even be able to go to the temple with him and his wife when they get sealed in a year. That was definitely the highlight of the week.
It seems like I’m always writing about food, but I guess that’s what interests me the most. I have a new lunch item I love to make. The isle Elder Taufa and I spent the most time at is the meat isle. We both love meat but we both don’t really know how to cook any of it, so we do a lot of experimenting. Last weeks experiment was very successful. I bought chuck tender steaks, which cost $3.60. There were 4 circular normal steaks. I threw 2 in a frying pan, put on some seasoned salt, pepper, and a little bit of garlic salt also. It only took a few minutes and it was really good. I experimented with one of them by cutting criss crosses on one steak and putting some masterpiece barbecue sauce on it and letting it cook. It was really good. I cooked the next 2 using a George Foreman grill. Those things are awesome. They cook both sides at the same time and all the fat drains right out into a little plastic container. It took less than 10 min to cook it too. It was delicious. I got to eat steak for 2 meals for $3.60. I bought a big can of Pringles chips for a buck too and I eat that with my steaks. I’m planning of buying more of the same kind of meat today. While I was cooking, I was wondering what kind of seasoning we use on our steaks at home. I’ve been experimenting with garlic salt and seasoned salt, and I think I might actually like garlic salt better. So…what would you recommend using to season those little steak things I buy?
Last week one of our dinner appointments canceled on us, so the Randall’s took us to Bamboo Village (the Chinese buffet place I went to a few weeks ago). We told them it was good, so they wanted to go try it out with us. It was deeelicious. The day before Elder Taufa was gone on exchanges and he told me how he got to go to Joe’s Crab Shack and eat a ton of crab. Well it just so happened that it was crab night at Bamboo Village, so lets just say I ate a lot. I was in a seafood mood. I had 7-8 crab legs, fried catfish, shrimp, salmon, ribs, rolls, and fruit to top off my stomach. I think it only cost like 9 bucks too.
Here's a random fact: I have recently started putting ice in my cereal. One time I was really thirsty and I was eating cereal and the milk wasn’t quenching my thirst, so I put 2 ice cubes in there and it was perfect. I like it to be reeeally cold. I think I might have seen Mom do that before.
Next random thing: I got a CD from a missionary in the mission and theres' a really good song on it. I believe it is called Dream Big, and I think Ryan Shube sings it. That is my favorite song as of right now. I think it has a good message. I heard it originally because the assistants had it playing for one of their powerpoints/trainings they did at zone conference this week. We happened to be at the office the next day, so he copied me the CD right there. My favorite CD is probably the Joseph Smith Tribute CD…the one Steven was referring to when I called home on Mothers Day.
I mentioned we had zone conference this week…it was just like normal: very good, but really long. It was President and Sister Allred’s last zone conference so they did a lot of reminiscing and talking about the Saylin’s (new mission president) coming.
I did get a letter from Mom with the pictures of Chad Johnson and the guesses for the NBA Championship game. That was a really good letter. Good pictures and good, interesting information. Thank you Mom.
Elder Pedersen is still in the mission; he finishes January 23 or something. He is good with the camera…he likes to take pictures or movies every single day. He has like 3 memory cards he's constantly sending home and I don’t know where.
I think that having several people speak about their favorite scriptures was a really good idea for a sacrament meeting. We use all those scriptures all the time in missionary work. We use the one in Mosiah 18 all the time for baptism…it talks about “what have ye against being baptized.” We use the Alma 32 scripture all the time as well. We read that whole chapter with a lot of our investigators. It helps them understand faith and understand they have to keep learning and endure to the end. Alma 41:10 is something that I’ve seen with my own eyes over and over again. Mom’s scripture in 2 Nephi 5 was good too..I have never thought about it that way.
New update on my companion’s knee. He is going to have surgery when he gets back to New Zealand. He wears a knee brace and he can walk as much as he feels comfortable. We don’t get to work full days, but we work from after lunch till night time. So it is a pretty good days work.
Ok that’s all for this week. Everything is still going good. The end of the transfer is in less than 2 weeks! That will be an exciting time. Thank you for all the mail Mom!! I love you all!
Love,
Chase
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Received Mon, June 8, 2009
Dear Family,
Although we didn’t get to get out as much as we normally could, this week was pretty good.
On Thursday we got to go to the temple. Our ward had a temple trip planned for our youth and we got to go because the two Dor daughters were going and 2 reactivated members were going for the first time. They all loved it. It was really neat to see these people we have been working with so much, experience the temple. I got to help do confirmations and 2 baptisms. Apparently missionaries are not allowed to baptize women in the temple, so we each just baptized 2 young men. It was my first time doing baptisms and confirmations in the temple. It was a really good experience. The water in the baptismal font was really warm too…it was almost like being in a Jacuzzi. That’s the closest thing we have to swimming on the mission.
The next piece of good news is that we have another baptism coming up. David Majewski will be baptized on June 13, this Saturday. He is very prepared and ready. He’s been coming to church for 3-4 months and he read the entire Gospel Principles Book. (Hes the one that wanted to finish reading the Gospel Principle’s book before getting baptized). He finished it like 3 weeks ago, but we haven’t been able to see him since then, but last week we set up an appointment with him and he said he was planning on getting baptized on his birthday, June 13. He’s already been interviewed and his baptism was announced in Sacrament meeting, so we’re expecting a pretty good attendance. That will be exciting.
I’ve written about Maria a couple times…she is the lady that has pretty bad depression. Well she didn’t make it to church last week…we’re thinking because she was arguing with her daughter about what date she would get married. The daughter joined the church 2 years ago and shes attending BYU-I right now. She’s engaged and she’s planning on getting married on September 4th, but Maria wants her to take a lot of counseling classes and marriage prep stuff and get married in a year. I guess the daughter has already made up her mind and wants to get married on September 4th. Maria really wanted to be in the temple for her marriage and that was a big motivating force for her starting to come back to church. Well, now that’s gone and she’s been going through some other trials, so her desire was a little shaken. We fasted for her and we’ve been praying for her, and she came to church yesterday and had a really good experience. It was fast and testimony meeting and a lot of the experiences people shared reminded her of some of her experiences. Then in gospel essentials class we had a really good lesson. She told us how much she loved church. I think she realized the big difference the spirit can make in your life. When you're really sad and you come to church and feel the spirit, there is such a huge difference so it makes it easy to recognize it. We have really high hopes for her and were planning on giving her a baptismal date soon.
We had a couple other good lessons with people, but that was our week in a nutshell. In the meantime, as my companion has been icing his knee, I’ve been reading a lot of scriptures and playing the piano a lot. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it…I think I have, but whenever we have free time, my companion and I will play around on the piano and we’ve kind of been teaching ourselves. We can both play the right hand of most songs, which is really cool considering neither of us really knew anything about piano’s when we first got here. So in the last few weeks I’ve gotten a lot of practice.
A few days ago I also felt like I should read the Book of Mormon again. I started 3 days ago and now I’m in 2 Nephi 9! I want to finish it within a month.
I made 2 omelets last week. One was a success and the other one didn’t go as planned. Apparently you aren’t supposed to cook omelets on really high heat. Well I was really hungry so I put the heat on high so I could eat my food faster. I poured the egg mixture in, and almost immediately it started looking like scrambled eggs. So I abandoned the idea of an omelet and finished making the scrambled eggs. Then I threw in some chopped up ham, then I threw in a tortilla, put it all together, put some cheese in there and I had a delicious breakfast burrito. Frying the tortillas makes a big difference. That’s what Hispanic people always do and they always have good tortillas. I usually just heat them up in the microwave, but frying them is way better.
One last story. We were eating dinner at a member’s home last week and the fact that I am a Spanish missionary was brought up, so the parents started talking about how their son is taking Spanish and how he is really good at it. So they prod him to show off his talent and they ask him to say “Hi, my name is Phillip.” This was his response: (pronounce it as you would in English): Hoe-la, Me lambes es Phillip. The first thought that came to my mind was to correct one of the words, but then I realized everything was wrong, so I just kept my thoughts to myself. I think he combined “Mi nombre es Phillip with Me Llamo Phillip, with a bad gringo accent. I not sure where llames came from though. Then the Mom said, “No, you said it wrong. You're supposed to say Felipe, not Phillip.” That made me laugh a lot. That was TexMex at its finest.Ok, well that’s about all for this week!
Have a happy birthday Mom!! I think this is the first birthday that I have remembered the Monday before it happened. Have a great week!! I love you!!
Love,
Chase
PS. I also sent pictures of the Dor's baptism. Enjoy!
Monday, June 1, 2009
A Couple of Funny Missionary Videos
The Bike Jump:
Raining:
(I believe those rain boots have been to Argentina too)
Could Be More Than You Asked For
Chase sent some pictures...215 of them!
Click the link to see the pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/thxhune/FromChaseMay2009#
Click the link to see the pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/thxhune/FromChaseMay2009#
Don't Miss It!
In Chase's letter of June 1st he talks about a video of him playing Phantom of the Opera. I found the video and put it at the end of that letter. So, if you read the letter, but didn't see the video, look at the bottom of that post!
Received Monday, June 1, 2009
Dear Family,
Wow...this has been a pretty unpredictable week. Last P-day everything went pretty much as planned. We ate breakfast with the ward, had a BBQ, then we went and played some football. Apparently some youth in Sugar Land challenged the missionaries to a game of football and they were talking a lot of smack, so the missionaries there called up a couple companionships to put a team together and we killed them.
We had 2 BYU football players, the starting running back for the Dixie State football team, a player from another college team, and 3 huge Tongans. It was hilarious to see my companion play. He would run directly at the guy with the ball, through whoever was in front of him, and get the guy with the ball out (we were playing 2 hand touch). It was as if he didn't see the people between the guy with the ball and him. After a few plays nobody would block him. Then on offense he would always catch the ball with one hand and half the time he would forget it was 2 hand touch and just lower his head and run straight at someone if they were in front of him. He had never seen football played until he got here.
Unfortunately the story doesn't have a happy ending. After we clobbered the youth, we (the missionaries) made 2 teams and were playing against each other. Near the end, my companion jumped up to get the ball and when he came down, he landed in a hole. It turns out he tore his ACL and his meniscus (however you spell it). So last week we had to go to doctors appointments, MRI's, and he had to ice it and keep it elevated. Tomorrow were going back to the doctor to get the MRI read and they'll talk about what to do about the surgery...whether they'll do it here or in back in New Zealand where his family is. Luckily, it doesn't hurt bad enough to the point where he can't move. Obviously we cant go knock doors or just make random visits, but if we had a set appointment then we'll go. So I've been calling all our investigators and setting up lots of appointments.
We get to go to the temple this Thursday! The youth are going on a temple trip, so the Dor's kids are all going to go for the first time. And we get to go with them. That will definitely be a highlight of the week.
Yesterday was a really good day at church. A lot of good things happened. Michelle Dor (the mom), brought her sister-in-law and her nephew to church. She is already doing missionary work! Hopefully we can start teaching her and her kids. 2 of her kids already come to mutual with the Dors kids. Jonathan Dor, who is 12, got the priesthood yesterday and passed the sacrament for the first time. That put a smile on my face. He is a really good kid...he's one of those people you know will be a good member the rest of his life. Then like 15 people got callings. A few less actives we've been working with got callings which made me really happy. It shows how much they've progressed and this will help them stay strong and active. One of the people who got callings was our investigator David Majewski. He's on the activities committee with his wife. That made me happy too. We're going to have a lesson on Wednesday with him..he should have a baptismal date soon. We haven't been able to meet with them for like 3 weeks because they've been out of town. We had 6 non members at church this week, which was really good.
I actually do have a couple stories even though we didn't go out that much this week. We had a very strange dinner appointment last Saturday. Mom would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in that house. We got to their house and they invited us in and we sat on their couch and talked with them for like 15 minutes. I was wondering if they had forgotten about our dinner appointment. I don't remember what we talked about but it was definitely a strange conversation. Then in mid sentence, all the sudden the husband was like, LETS EAT! (I use an exclamation point because he literally yelled it). So we go to the dining room and its all perfectly clean and very elegant. There were china plates and full silverware (including the different sized forks). I was pretty surprised and wondered what we were going to eat. So we went into the kitchen and saw 6 boxes of pizza. That were more boxes than there were people. Well, lets just say we both ate until we couldn't eat anymore. Oh yeah, there were a couple of boxes of breadsticks too. That was delicious. They talked to us about computer games and that vampire romance book and all sorts of other things. I had a great time there..it was all really entertaining. They were both very nice people, but they were just a little different.
Next story is also about a dinner appointment. We ate at a Chinese restaurant called Bamboo Hut. I wasn't too happy when I heard we were going to go eat Chinese food, because we eat it all the time and I never really liked it to begin with, but this was gooood. It was a buffet and it wasn't just Chinese food. They had steak and ribs and all sorts of meat. They had a sushi bar and a huge selection. There were some interesting foods too. I had a crab claw. I was thinking it was the fat part of the crab arm full of meat. It literally was just the crab claw. They put the claw part of the arm (basically like a finger nail) and wrapped it in potato or something. I also had cheesy crab. I think it was imitation crab meat, but it was still alright. I also ate a frog leg. I don't know how many chances I'll have to do that, especially for free, so I did it. It tasted just like fish to me. It didn't taste that bad, it was just weird knowing it was a frog. Plus you could see veins and ligaments and stuff in there.
What a coincidence...I saw a professional football player too. I actually got to eat dinner at his house. I think he just barely got released from the Texans, but the Broncos are going to pick him up. He's and offensive lineman, so he is huge. His name is Scott Jackson I think. He lives in Sugar Land. I was on exchanges in Sugar Land so I lucked out that we were having dinner with him that night. They were a really nice family.
Alright well I think that's about all for this week. Hurricane season officially starts today for this area. That always makes things more exciting.
Oh yeah, did you guys see the videos that were on my memory card? I thought the video of me playing the phantom of the opera was pretty funny, just because that's what Christopher would always play when he got home.
Ok, well have a good week! Don't tear any ligaments...its not fun! I love you!!
Love,
Chase
NOTE FROM CHASE'S MOM: I didn't even know there were videos on Chase's memory card! Glad he said something. Here is the Phantom video:
Wow...this has been a pretty unpredictable week. Last P-day everything went pretty much as planned. We ate breakfast with the ward, had a BBQ, then we went and played some football. Apparently some youth in Sugar Land challenged the missionaries to a game of football and they were talking a lot of smack, so the missionaries there called up a couple companionships to put a team together and we killed them.
We had 2 BYU football players, the starting running back for the Dixie State football team, a player from another college team, and 3 huge Tongans. It was hilarious to see my companion play. He would run directly at the guy with the ball, through whoever was in front of him, and get the guy with the ball out (we were playing 2 hand touch). It was as if he didn't see the people between the guy with the ball and him. After a few plays nobody would block him. Then on offense he would always catch the ball with one hand and half the time he would forget it was 2 hand touch and just lower his head and run straight at someone if they were in front of him. He had never seen football played until he got here.
Unfortunately the story doesn't have a happy ending. After we clobbered the youth, we (the missionaries) made 2 teams and were playing against each other. Near the end, my companion jumped up to get the ball and when he came down, he landed in a hole. It turns out he tore his ACL and his meniscus (however you spell it). So last week we had to go to doctors appointments, MRI's, and he had to ice it and keep it elevated. Tomorrow were going back to the doctor to get the MRI read and they'll talk about what to do about the surgery...whether they'll do it here or in back in New Zealand where his family is. Luckily, it doesn't hurt bad enough to the point where he can't move. Obviously we cant go knock doors or just make random visits, but if we had a set appointment then we'll go. So I've been calling all our investigators and setting up lots of appointments.
We get to go to the temple this Thursday! The youth are going on a temple trip, so the Dor's kids are all going to go for the first time. And we get to go with them. That will definitely be a highlight of the week.
Yesterday was a really good day at church. A lot of good things happened. Michelle Dor (the mom), brought her sister-in-law and her nephew to church. She is already doing missionary work! Hopefully we can start teaching her and her kids. 2 of her kids already come to mutual with the Dors kids. Jonathan Dor, who is 12, got the priesthood yesterday and passed the sacrament for the first time. That put a smile on my face. He is a really good kid...he's one of those people you know will be a good member the rest of his life. Then like 15 people got callings. A few less actives we've been working with got callings which made me really happy. It shows how much they've progressed and this will help them stay strong and active. One of the people who got callings was our investigator David Majewski. He's on the activities committee with his wife. That made me happy too. We're going to have a lesson on Wednesday with him..he should have a baptismal date soon. We haven't been able to meet with them for like 3 weeks because they've been out of town. We had 6 non members at church this week, which was really good.
I actually do have a couple stories even though we didn't go out that much this week. We had a very strange dinner appointment last Saturday. Mom would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in that house. We got to their house and they invited us in and we sat on their couch and talked with them for like 15 minutes. I was wondering if they had forgotten about our dinner appointment. I don't remember what we talked about but it was definitely a strange conversation. Then in mid sentence, all the sudden the husband was like, LETS EAT! (I use an exclamation point because he literally yelled it). So we go to the dining room and its all perfectly clean and very elegant. There were china plates and full silverware (including the different sized forks). I was pretty surprised and wondered what we were going to eat. So we went into the kitchen and saw 6 boxes of pizza. That were more boxes than there were people. Well, lets just say we both ate until we couldn't eat anymore. Oh yeah, there were a couple of boxes of breadsticks too. That was delicious. They talked to us about computer games and that vampire romance book and all sorts of other things. I had a great time there..it was all really entertaining. They were both very nice people, but they were just a little different.
Next story is also about a dinner appointment. We ate at a Chinese restaurant called Bamboo Hut. I wasn't too happy when I heard we were going to go eat Chinese food, because we eat it all the time and I never really liked it to begin with, but this was gooood. It was a buffet and it wasn't just Chinese food. They had steak and ribs and all sorts of meat. They had a sushi bar and a huge selection. There were some interesting foods too. I had a crab claw. I was thinking it was the fat part of the crab arm full of meat. It literally was just the crab claw. They put the claw part of the arm (basically like a finger nail) and wrapped it in potato or something. I also had cheesy crab. I think it was imitation crab meat, but it was still alright. I also ate a frog leg. I don't know how many chances I'll have to do that, especially for free, so I did it. It tasted just like fish to me. It didn't taste that bad, it was just weird knowing it was a frog. Plus you could see veins and ligaments and stuff in there.
What a coincidence...I saw a professional football player too. I actually got to eat dinner at his house. I think he just barely got released from the Texans, but the Broncos are going to pick him up. He's and offensive lineman, so he is huge. His name is Scott Jackson I think. He lives in Sugar Land. I was on exchanges in Sugar Land so I lucked out that we were having dinner with him that night. They were a really nice family.
Alright well I think that's about all for this week. Hurricane season officially starts today for this area. That always makes things more exciting.
Oh yeah, did you guys see the videos that were on my memory card? I thought the video of me playing the phantom of the opera was pretty funny, just because that's what Christopher would always play when he got home.
Ok, well have a good week! Don't tear any ligaments...its not fun! I love you!!
Love,
Chase
NOTE FROM CHASE'S MOM: I didn't even know there were videos on Chase's memory card! Glad he said something. Here is the Phantom video:
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