Received Mon Feb 15, 2010

Dear Family,

It just never seems to slow down!! I've had some days in my mission that have been really really busy, but I've never had a period like this where every second of my time has been consumed for 3 weeks. I havent had any time to write in my journal or have a night time snack before bed. Being busy is always a good thing though. I've learned to just enjoy it, because if your life has to be consumed by work, this is the best kind of work to do it.

Anyway, last week on our P-day we were pretty excited for a day where we would finally be able to breathe for a few hours, then we get a phone call and a less active lady's daughter needs a blessing and she didnt know who else to call. Then a wrench was thrown into the mess because it was just the lady and her daughter at home and we cant enter the home unless another man is present. Anyway, it all worked out and we were able to bring somebody with us. Meanwhile our district went to the NASA space center again, since we have new people in our district who have never been. By the time we finished everything it was like 3 and we sped over to NASA and got there just in time to catch the last tram tour with our district. So we finally got to relax our minds for 3 hours until our P-day ended. It was pretty fun.

I'm not sure what we'll do today. I got my haircut, after this we'll go shop, and we'll probably just end up staying at home. I have a few letters to respond to that have been sitting on my desk for a few months. Tony and Jake both wrote me. They are both doing really well. Then a random girl from BYU decided to write me again. My mail flow has pretty much boiled down to an occasional letter from Tony or Jake, then every long once in a while a random person from BYU will write me. I was getting mail pretty frequently for a long time on my mission...so I havent done too bad. But, the letter with pictures and address labels will be grately appreciated. I am excited for that one.

This week we had the correlation meeting with our stake president and our mission president and a couple other stake leaders. That means we had to fill out reports for all the units in our stake (there are 9). That is what took up a lot of our time this week. I am happy that is all done and taken care of.

We went on exchanges this week with some missionaries in our zone...that went well. While I was there I got to do a baptismal interview for 2 hispanic people who got baptized this weekend. Our zone is doing pretty well so far. We have had 10 baptisms and 10 confirmations in this transfer so far (we just ended week 3). I am excited about that.

In other exciting news, were having a baptism this Saturday! Anthony, the 10 year old kid, is going to get baptized. I was really sad that his whole family didnt come to church with them this Sunday. Surprisingly one of the biggest obstacles that I have come across that is the hardest for people to overcome is pure laziness. This family really has desires to support their son and to come to church, but every Sunday morning they just feel tired and it is easier to stay in bed. It takes a 10 year old kid without any family support to be the strong one to get up and come to church. He is doing really well though. We got him to a family home evening last week with one of the kids family who he has made friends with at church. He loved it and begged us to let him go to another one of those. We also get him to cub scouts every Tuesday, then to church every Sunday. It is amazing how much cub scouts can do for a boy like this. Involving him in something like that and teaching him skills that his parents dont teach him, then giving him merit badges to show him he can accomplish things is just huge for him. I hope we can keep this fire he's got and help him stay a strong member. I am excited for this baptism though. For one, because I am happy to see Anthony make this huge choice in the right direction, and for 2, this will be my companion's first baptism. That was one of my hugest goals this transfer. A missionary as good as him who has been out as long as him needs to have a baptism, so I am excited to see that happen.

This next week should be a good one. We dont have any huge projects to get done or anything problems as of right now to work out. Hopefully it wont be as hectic as the past few weeks have been. You go through everything for a reason though. I've learned how to prioritize and how to work under pressure and how to stay calm and just work when you have a mountain of work ahead of you.

Ok, thats about all for this week. Happy Valentines day yesterday! I love you all!

Love,
Chase