Received Mon Dec 14, 2009

Dear Family,

Surprise surprise…I am getting transferred! I definitely did not expect that and I am a little sad. This is probably one of my favorite areas. We have appointments all throughout the day every day. There are usually only like 3 or maybe 4 hours of the day in the afternoon where we don’t have any set appointments and during that time we always have things to do or people to contact. It has been awesome. I don’t think I mentioned it last week, but one of the Assistants is going home this transfer, so they had to pick a new assistant. I definitely did not want that to be me. For one, because that is a 100% English area, for 2, they spent so much time in the office doing all these random projects and I would prefer to be out teaching people doing normal missionary work. They just have crazy schedules. So I have been worried about that for the past couple of weeks and I shared with President my thoughts in my last president’s letter. Last night President Saylin asked one of the zone leaders from the other Spanish zone to be the AP…so I am way relieved. He is one of my good friends in the mission, so that makes me really happy too. I am really excited for the next couple of transfers.

There are only a couple zone leader areas with spots open for me to go to, so I think I figured out where I am going. I love playing the guessing game and trying to predict where everyone is going. I think I’ve got it all figured out. I am probably going to be going to League City, which is out near Galveston, which means I’ll get to go on exchanges with the Galveston Elders. That will be awesome. The downside is that the area is an English area. Half the zone is English and half is Spanish, so they have 1 english and 1 spanish zone leader there. I’ll get to go on exchanges to all the Spanish areas, but my area will still be English. I also told president that I want to stay in Spanish for the rest of my mission. Well, this is what he responded:
“I appreciate your sharing your desires with me as to your own transfer
destiny! The good news is that you have lots of mission left to serve! We
will see where the Lord takes you! This I promise you -- you will receive
assignments to go where He wants you to be. I'll tell you, my friend, I am
very confident that there is no better place to be that where the Lord wants
you to be! Hang tight -- good times are coming!”

Basically that translates to, he is aware of my desires, but the lord wants be somewhere else and I will probably get to finish off my mission in a spanish area. I am ok with that.

Well enough of transfers talk. Transfers are always exciting so there is always a lot to say about it. But I do have some stories for this week.

On Tuesday, Bessy and Luis Miguel got baptized! It was an awesome baptism. I baptized Luis Miguel and Elder Cameron baptized Bessy. I have always tried to get members to do the baptisms, but they really wanted us to, so of course we accepted. My favorite part about the baptism was when Bessy bore her testimony right after getting baptized. She is going to be such a strong member. I think one of the most satisfying things on the mission is when you baptize someone and you don’t have any doubt in your mind that they will stay active for the rest of their lives. This was one of those baptisms.

On that same day on Tuesday, we actually got fed breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was awesome. There is a senior missionary couple that lives in our apartment complex and they invited us over for dinner that day, then we had lunch at a member’s home, then our dinner was the baptism “refreshments.” I say “refreshments” because when Hispanics say that, it means a meal. Whenever we have family home evenings they will allllways make a full course meal afterwards as the “refreshment.” So after the baptism we had pupusa’s, which are a delicious El Salvadoran food. It looks almost like a pancake, but it is made out of tortillas, and it is filled with meat and beans and whatever else they choose to fill it with. Pupusas are definitely one of my favorite foods I’ve had out here.

Then last night we put on an investigator fireside. That is where everyone in our zone brings their investigators to a fireside and we have a couple recent converts tell their conversion stories, then have a final speaker who is usually someone who got baptized several years ago, so they can hear testimonies of new converts, then of a convert who has been in the church for a long time. It is always a really good fireside. Bessy was one of our recent convert talks and she did awesome. I was also the one who conducted the meeting. This was my first real meeting I’ve conducted in Spanish. I was definitely nervous, but it turned out alright.

Ok here is an awesome story. So every P-day we go to the same Wal-mart and on the way we always drive past this donut store called Best Donuts. We always joke about the name and talk about how they have the self proclaimed Best Donuts. Well knowing me, of course I suggest we go try out these so called best donuts. When we pull up all the lights are off in the store, so we sit there for a second, then the owner of the shop, an asian guy, asks us if we wanted to buy some donuts. I told him yes of course, because they are the Best Donuts. They were about to close, but he let us in and showed us all the donuts he had left. I asked him if we could get discounts for the donuts since they were about to close. He was like, “Yes….I give you everything for 8 dollar.” There were over 50 donuts there! Of course we bought them! It turned out to be like 15 cents a donut or something. We all stuffed ourselves. I had like 8-9 donuts for lunch that day. Delicious. I do have to admit it made me kind of sick, but I would still do it again.

Next story…so you remember my story about giving the blessing to the guy who got shot in the head? Well the mom of that guy called us up again and wanted us to come back to say a prayer with them or something. When we show up we find out she wanted us to come back and see him because he is now conscious and he is recuperating very well. So we said a prayer of thanks with them. They all want to us to teach them. (None of them are members…the mom is just friends with a member of the church and she is the lady who referred us to go give the blessing). It was pretty awesome.

Well this lady has another friend whose son is also in the same hospital and she wanted us to go give a blessing to him. He has a pretty crazy story too. We don’t have all the details, but he was at some party and he fell/got pushed off the balcony of a 2 story building and landed on his head and he had been in a coma for 5 months. He was in the ICU with all these tubes and things keeping him alive. We had to put on a gown thing, gloves, and a mask in order to go into the room and give him the blessing. It was pretty intense.

We’ve had a lot of good things happen this week too with all our investigators. We’ve found some new people who are pretty awesome. There are going to be a lot of baptisms here next transfer. I am sad that I have to leave, but that is what we do as missionaries. We just go wherever were sent and we work our hardest and do our best wherever we’re put. So I am happy.

Oh, and to answer your questions, no I did not get any Sees candy nor a package from the YM/YW.
The polygraph test sounded pretty intense, but working for the department of defense sounds pretty awesome.

Ok, well next week I will be writing from a brand new area. We’ll see where I go! I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Love,
Chase