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