Dear Family,
Lets see…I only have a couple things written down for this week. First, I realized that I made a mistake in my last e-mail. I mentioned a drink called Sangria that was a watermelon drink. Well actually Sangria is a nasty grape juice drink that people always give us to drink. I think its gross. Sandia is actually the watermelon drink.
Second, I got to go to the Pulga yesterday. The Pulga is basically a big swap meet…I think that’s what its called. It’s a flea market for Hispanics. Its just full of a bunch of stands of random stuff…most of which is counterfeit and really cheap. I got to go because the missionaries have a stand there with copies of the Book of Mormon, pass a long cards, pamphlets, etc, and we talk to everyone that walks by. We didn’t get to talk to that many people because it was sprinkling on and off so there weren’t that many people, but it was still a fun experience. There was Hispanic music blasting all around us and it was cool to see all the stuff they have there. There is also this guy there who loves missionaries and he owns this juice stand, so he always gives the missionaries a free drink every time we go. I got horchata…it was way good. Before we left I also got a Barcelona soccer jersey. That’s Ronaldinho’s team…he’s an amazing soccer player. It cost 15 bucks and that is a really good price for a jersey. So I am pretty excited about that. Watching soccer is obviously huge among the Hispanic culture here. Everyone has their team that they love. A lot of the Hispanics love Chivas, but I’ve decided my team is Barcelona. I would like to get a Chivas jersey before the end of my mission though. We see people playing soccer all throughout the day and whenever we go into houses they have the games on…that always makes me want to play soccer. I definitely want to play on an intramural team at BYU.
When I went to the Pulga I was actually on exchanges with an elder named Elder Geinger. He’s been one of my friends pretty much since the beginning of my mission. This is his very last transfer, so hes going home in about a week. We had a really good exchange though. I haven’t really written about it much, but I have been having a really difficult time with my companion. I feel like I have to defend myself all day long and it’s a fight any time I suggest anything. He’s a good guy, but he just has a single tracked mind, so if I suggest anything that isn’t exactly in line with what he was thinking, it is an absurd idea. There's just a lot of things that haven’t been going that well and it is really tiring. Elder Geinger and I have had very similar missions in terms of companions and areas and he knew exactly what I was going through. It was really reassuring to have someone I respect agree with me and tell me he knows exactly whats going on. It helped me to be confident about it all and to know that’s just part of the mission and its one of those times where you grow the most, so I am pretty happy about that.
Spanish is still going really well. I’ve actually had several dreams in Spanish and at night all my thoughts and conversations going through my mind are all in Spanish.
Ok, I have a question now. Christopher wrote me a while ago to tell me all about what exactly his thesis and all that was about and I liked it a lot because I really know nothing about that. My question now is, what exactly is defending your thesis. You stand in front of some people and they ask you questions about it, is what I think Christopher told me. But everyone is going up there to watch it, so other people are invited to come and watch too?
My responses to Mom’s random thoughts:
Wow…it looks like BYU might seriously have a good team this year. That is exciting. One of the players, Carter Mees, I believe hes some sort of safety, he just left out mission in December. He was an AP…he was a really cool guy. And I’ve never heard of the team called Tulane. Probably because they clearly stink.
Not surprising to hear Donovan McNabb got hurt again, but I am surprised it happened so soon in the season.
Zak’s quote made me laugh.
I was impressed by Mom’s correct use of the command form in Spanish (Habla espanol).
Ok that’s all for this week. This is the last week in the transfer already! It always seems to come so fast. I am about to complete my 9th transfer. That means I’ll get the transfer call next Monday. I don’t fully expect any changes, but you never know, so we’ll see. Have a good week! I love you all!!!
Love,
Chase
Monday, September 14, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Received Tuesday, Sept 8, 2009
Dear Family,
I did not e-mail yesterday, as you might have guessed, because it was Memorial Day [I am sure Chase means Labor Day!] and no libraries were opened. President Saylin said that we could end our P-day 1 hour early (at 5:00pm) and take an hour on Tuesday to e-mail, so that is why you are getting my e-mail a day late.
I will start with my comments about Mom’s e-mail to me. It was an excellent e-mail. It got several audible responses from me as well as a fist pump when I read about BYU beating Oklahoma. Mom’s recap on the sacrament meeting also got several laughs out of me, especially the how the nicknames were included so I could understand who was being talked about. I started reading about Brother Holling giving his testimony and immediately thought…who the heck is that, then I remembered. Mom totally predicted my thoughts. That is also exciting that an investigator bore his testimony. One of the sister’s (they are also in our ward) investigators also bore his testimony. That’s always really exciting for the missionaries. I also want to comment that I know exactly what Griffin is talking about when he says he wants one of those cool tooth holders that you get from school. They are shaped like a treasure box and they come in all different colors. I got one of those too.
I’m starting a new paragraph here just because all that last paragraph was all random thoughts, but I still have more. That is a funny coincidence that Zak has Mrs. Goto as his chemistry teacher. I think it will be interesting to see where all my friends are and what they are doing by the time I get home. I did get the Jensen’s cookies, I got them at my year mark. They sent me cookies and a package of Stride Gum, with a note that said Lengthen Your STRIDE. I thought that was nice. I also got the memory card/FF info this week. That was all interesting too. There are several players on there that I don’t know, but I do know most of them.
I did have a funny dream a while ago though. Every once in a while I have dreams that I’m back at home, but I’m all dressed in missionary clothes and I’m still trying to keep the missionary rules, but I’m at home and I’m really confused as to whats going on. Those dreams are always hilarious. But this one dream I had that I had just arrived at the airport to see all my family, but Christopher and Steven both had wives that I never heard about. Then I hugged all my family members and the 2 girls were there and I didn’t know what to do, so I just shook their hands and kept going. It was pretty funny.
Ok, now I have about 15 minutes left to write and I actually have a good amount of things written down to write about. First, is a question probably for Mom. We were visiting a member and she made a comment about making sure to wear sunscreen because you can get skin cancer or sun spots or something. Well, I’ve never worn sunscreen on my mission yet. In my mind, sunscreen was only used to prevent sunburns…I’ve never thought about skin cancer or any of that stuff. I’ve gotten a pretty decent tan, so that’s kind of like natural sunscreen and so I never think about wearing sunscreen. So my question is, should I really start wearing sunscreen? By the way, I took a pretty funny picture of my watch tan…it’s a good one.
Here are a couple random observations I’ve made over the past couple weeks of Rosenberg. First, there are about 5 or 6 ice cream men in this city. They are always driving around playing their music…we usually see them every day. I don’t know how they don’t go crazy listening to that same song over and over again. They are also pretty shady looking guys. Another strange thing I’ve noticed is that there are tons of mortuaries/funeral homes here. There are probably 8-10. I guess that’s a pretty good business here? I don’t know. I’ve also noticed how all the kids here still love skate boarding. At home that fad died away like when I was in 8th grade…I guess its still popular here. Another thing I’ve noticed is that out of all the Hispanics we talk to here, I’d say about 75-80% are from Mexico. In Galveston it was really diverse, here its mostly Mexican people. If they aren’t Mexican they are probably from El Salvador. Then every once in a while you find a Nicaraguan or a Guatemalan.
Next: I think I found a typo in the Bible. At the end of James 5:4 it says, Lord of the saboath. I’m pretty sure that’s not a word and I’m pretty sure they meant lord of the Sabbath. Am I right..is that a typo?
I also tried this drink last week called, sandría, which is basically watermelon juice. There is watermelon chunks floating in it and the rest is watermelon juice. It’s a pretty interesting drink, but its pretty good.
Oh yeah…one of our investigators caught the swine flu as well. He has this weird inhaler thing he has to take so many times a day.
I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned, but one of the big things were doing in our mission is extending baptismal dates sooner and more effectively. Well, we’ve been doing that and we now have 4 people with a baptismal date in our area. We have about 5 others who are also genuinely interesting. At the start of the transfer we had 0 progressing investigators, so I am pretty happy. The huge problem we are having though is that nearly every one of our investigators has to work on Sundays. Most of them work in restaurants and the weekends are their busiest day. So that is a big struggle and I cant really think of any way to help, except to pray and hope a miracle happens. Right now were just focusing on helping them develop a strong testimony, then after that is where the miracles will happen. So the missionary work is going a LOT better right now. Those first few weeks were pretty stressful. Were in week 5 of the transfer right now. Anything can happen at the end of this transfer too (as far as transfers go), so we’ll see what happens. I’ll be sad if I get transferred away so soon.
Ok, this is a pretty good sized e-mail. I think I hit just about everything on my list. Oh wait, I also finished the New Testament last week! That was exciting. Now I’m reading Jesus the Christ and I’m going to read Doctrine and Covenants. I didn’t realize how huge Jesus the Christ is...that's going to take some time to read.
Oh yeah, and my last random comment is that, I got a District of Columbia quarter and a Guam quarter the other day when I was getting change to pay for laundry…I didn’t even know they were making those.
Ok that’s all…have a good week (I almost subconsciously put in a “ya’ll” right here)! I love you all!
Love,
Chase
I did not e-mail yesterday, as you might have guessed, because it was Memorial Day [I am sure Chase means Labor Day!] and no libraries were opened. President Saylin said that we could end our P-day 1 hour early (at 5:00pm) and take an hour on Tuesday to e-mail, so that is why you are getting my e-mail a day late.
I will start with my comments about Mom’s e-mail to me. It was an excellent e-mail. It got several audible responses from me as well as a fist pump when I read about BYU beating Oklahoma. Mom’s recap on the sacrament meeting also got several laughs out of me, especially the how the nicknames were included so I could understand who was being talked about. I started reading about Brother Holling giving his testimony and immediately thought…who the heck is that, then I remembered. Mom totally predicted my thoughts. That is also exciting that an investigator bore his testimony. One of the sister’s (they are also in our ward) investigators also bore his testimony. That’s always really exciting for the missionaries. I also want to comment that I know exactly what Griffin is talking about when he says he wants one of those cool tooth holders that you get from school. They are shaped like a treasure box and they come in all different colors. I got one of those too.
I’m starting a new paragraph here just because all that last paragraph was all random thoughts, but I still have more. That is a funny coincidence that Zak has Mrs. Goto as his chemistry teacher. I think it will be interesting to see where all my friends are and what they are doing by the time I get home. I did get the Jensen’s cookies, I got them at my year mark. They sent me cookies and a package of Stride Gum, with a note that said Lengthen Your STRIDE. I thought that was nice. I also got the memory card/FF info this week. That was all interesting too. There are several players on there that I don’t know, but I do know most of them.
I did have a funny dream a while ago though. Every once in a while I have dreams that I’m back at home, but I’m all dressed in missionary clothes and I’m still trying to keep the missionary rules, but I’m at home and I’m really confused as to whats going on. Those dreams are always hilarious. But this one dream I had that I had just arrived at the airport to see all my family, but Christopher and Steven both had wives that I never heard about. Then I hugged all my family members and the 2 girls were there and I didn’t know what to do, so I just shook their hands and kept going. It was pretty funny.
Ok, now I have about 15 minutes left to write and I actually have a good amount of things written down to write about. First, is a question probably for Mom. We were visiting a member and she made a comment about making sure to wear sunscreen because you can get skin cancer or sun spots or something. Well, I’ve never worn sunscreen on my mission yet. In my mind, sunscreen was only used to prevent sunburns…I’ve never thought about skin cancer or any of that stuff. I’ve gotten a pretty decent tan, so that’s kind of like natural sunscreen and so I never think about wearing sunscreen. So my question is, should I really start wearing sunscreen? By the way, I took a pretty funny picture of my watch tan…it’s a good one.
Here are a couple random observations I’ve made over the past couple weeks of Rosenberg. First, there are about 5 or 6 ice cream men in this city. They are always driving around playing their music…we usually see them every day. I don’t know how they don’t go crazy listening to that same song over and over again. They are also pretty shady looking guys. Another strange thing I’ve noticed is that there are tons of mortuaries/funeral homes here. There are probably 8-10. I guess that’s a pretty good business here? I don’t know. I’ve also noticed how all the kids here still love skate boarding. At home that fad died away like when I was in 8th grade…I guess its still popular here. Another thing I’ve noticed is that out of all the Hispanics we talk to here, I’d say about 75-80% are from Mexico. In Galveston it was really diverse, here its mostly Mexican people. If they aren’t Mexican they are probably from El Salvador. Then every once in a while you find a Nicaraguan or a Guatemalan.
Next: I think I found a typo in the Bible. At the end of James 5:4 it says, Lord of the saboath. I’m pretty sure that’s not a word and I’m pretty sure they meant lord of the Sabbath. Am I right..is that a typo?
I also tried this drink last week called, sandría, which is basically watermelon juice. There is watermelon chunks floating in it and the rest is watermelon juice. It’s a pretty interesting drink, but its pretty good.
Oh yeah…one of our investigators caught the swine flu as well. He has this weird inhaler thing he has to take so many times a day.
I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned, but one of the big things were doing in our mission is extending baptismal dates sooner and more effectively. Well, we’ve been doing that and we now have 4 people with a baptismal date in our area. We have about 5 others who are also genuinely interesting. At the start of the transfer we had 0 progressing investigators, so I am pretty happy. The huge problem we are having though is that nearly every one of our investigators has to work on Sundays. Most of them work in restaurants and the weekends are their busiest day. So that is a big struggle and I cant really think of any way to help, except to pray and hope a miracle happens. Right now were just focusing on helping them develop a strong testimony, then after that is where the miracles will happen. So the missionary work is going a LOT better right now. Those first few weeks were pretty stressful. Were in week 5 of the transfer right now. Anything can happen at the end of this transfer too (as far as transfers go), so we’ll see what happens. I’ll be sad if I get transferred away so soon.
Ok, this is a pretty good sized e-mail. I think I hit just about everything on my list. Oh wait, I also finished the New Testament last week! That was exciting. Now I’m reading Jesus the Christ and I’m going to read Doctrine and Covenants. I didn’t realize how huge Jesus the Christ is...that's going to take some time to read.
Oh yeah, and my last random comment is that, I got a District of Columbia quarter and a Guam quarter the other day when I was getting change to pay for laundry…I didn’t even know they were making those.
Ok that’s all…have a good week (I almost subconsciously put in a “ya’ll” right here)! I love you all!
Love,
Chase
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