Dear Family,
BYU Living arrangements: To be honest, I don't know anything about any places to live at BYU. Wherever CJ and ST think will be good, I'm good with because I don't know anything about any place.
Congrats to CJ on getting the new job. That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
My week here has been a pretty good, normal week. We still have a whole bunch of people to teach, but were trying to help them make that next step of coming to church, so they can really progress. Everyone is always so busy, or something comes up last minute that prevents them from coming to church. I am glad that we do have a pretty good sized teaching pool now though. We are still having a lot of success with less active families. So many people stop coming to church because they got offended by someone or something. We always talk about the reasons why we go to church, which is basically to renew covenants with God which are necessary for salvation. And by letting themselves be offended they are missing out on blessings which makes life harder, and they will not be able to have salvation. It usually works pretty well...it gets people thinking. We got 2 new families to come this week and they were really excited to be there. Once people come back, they always feel good and always want to come back the next week.
We found a new guy to teach this week who has a lot of potential. His name is Victor Raul...hes from Peru. The missionaries used to teach this guy all the time and he came to church several times, but he started to get really busy with work, so he slowly lost contact with the missionaries. Well, now he has some sort of health condition...thyroids or something, and he has to sit at home and just rest and recuperate for a couple months. So now he has all the time in the world to listen to us and come to church. Unfortunately he didn't come this Sunday because he was out playing soccer, so we'll have to talk about that, but were pretty excited to be teaching him again.
I don't really know what to write about this week! Here is one story I can think of. There is this family in our ward who just got sealed in the temple. They are the familia Madora...they are awesome. When I met them the first time they both said they were from Mexico. We've visited them several times since then, and I've always noticed that hermano Madora has an accent, and he looks just like an Argentino. Well, this last week we were visiting him, and he had all these different Argentinian foods and then I saw a mate cup in his kitchen. So I asked him why he likes Argentinian stuff so much and he told me that its because hes Argentinian. I was like whatt?? That's what I thought the whole time, but you told me you were from Mexico. I don't know why, but he said he just tells people he's from Mexico because his wife really is from Mexico. I told him how Christopher and Dad served their missions there, and he told us allll about Argentina. He gave us some alfajores and they were goood. He said its the best brand you can find...it was the Havana brand. He is an awesome guy.
Well...that's all I can think of for this week. By the way...I sent a memory card with pictures home a week or two ago, did you ever get that? Hopefully it didn't get lost in the mail.
Next week I'll have transfer news! Elder Johnson is probably getting transferred, but we'll see.
Ok I love you all!! Have a good week!
Love,
Chase
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Received Mon, May 17, 2010
Dear Family,
Happy Birthday on Wednesday Kylie!!! It sounds like you're going to have a pretty good party. I love ice cream cake. And molten lava cakes. I hope you have a good party.
The weeks have definitely been flying by here too. We are already about to start week 5 of the transfer. We've had a lot of good things happen this week though. We taught the Mendez family again, which is the family I wrote about last week where the husband was pretty mad at first to see us again. This time the wife was awake so we got him to go invite her. He said she would never come and listen, but we told him to go try any way, and he did and she came and joined us. We taught him, his wife, and his brother. It was a pretty good lesson. We left them with Books of Mormon and gave them part of King Benjamin's speech to read. We're going back tomorrow.
We found a lot of other new people to teach this week too. I think we got 6 new investigators. We have been trying something where instead of just trying to set up return appointments, we ask people if we can teach them right then. Surprisingly a couple people of week say yes and that is how we've been finding a lot of new people. Here are two cool stories. The first one is that last Monday at the end of our P-day, we were riding our bikes down Westheimer, which is the big, very busy, main street that runs through our area, and I saw this Hispanic guy riding his bike across the street with some groceries. I started talking to him, then I asked him if he lived in the apartments that were down the street a little bit, he said yes. So I asked him if we could come back to him apartment with him and share an important message with him. He surprisingly said yes. My companion couldn't hear much of what was going on because of all the traffic and everything and when he saw me get off my bike, he was like, what are we doing? I told him we were going back to this guy's apartment to teach him, so we did. His two roommates were drunk, so he didn't want us to go in, so we taught him on some benches in the courtyard of the apartment complex. It was a really good lesson, and my companion extended his first Spanish baptismal date, and he accepted. It was pretty awesome.
The second story is that we were riding our bikes down Westheimer again and we stopped to talk to a couple of people at the bus stop. As soon as I started to talk to this guy I saw the bus coming down the road, so I gave him a card and told him we have a really important message we need to share with him, and to call the number so missionaries can come by and share it to him. He asked if I could just tell it to him there. I told him its not a message you can just share in a couple of seconds, and that his bus was there and we didn't want him to miss his bus. He said..."Nah its cool man, I can just catch another bus. I want to hear your message." So we sat down on the grass on the corner of this busy road and taught this guy. He was really really open to it and we extended a baptismal date to him too. We gave him as a referral to this English Elders, so they are teaching him now. It was a pretty cool experience.
So those were some of our good experience of the week. On a funnier note, we talk to Lars (the guy we live with) most nights when we get home and as you can imagine, he is a pretty interesting guy. Being single at the age of 40, you have a lot of free time on your hands. He is waaay into studying about the end of the world and dissecting the book of Revelation in the Bible. He is pretty sure he's got in all figured out. The second coming will be in 2037, and all the big signs you read about in Revelation will start coming to pass after the year 2017. He is really serious about this stuff, so he has been preparing with food storage and all sorts of crazy things. Some of the things hes got are 500 lbs of wheat, 50 lbs of baking soda, he is building a massive water storage holder (like thousands of gallons), he's building an electromagnetic generator to produce electricity, and his newest project which I just learned about this week is that he wants to start raising chickens. The only problem is that it is against some city code to have chickens, so he is going to do it upstairs in his attic. He bought 3 fertilized chicken eggs, which should be arriving any time, and he's got this chicken egg incubator, which probably came off the internet too. When he was describing this whole thing, I kept thinking of that scene in Napoleon Dynamite where they try to buy a time machine off the internet and they've got these crystals and everything. I told him that's what it reminded me of and he just laughed. We'll see what happens with that. It is all good entertainment, that is for sure.
That is exciting that Zak is getting his Eagle project done. Has he gotten all the merit badges he needs? I remember I had to go to camp trask to finish off a couple. Does that old man who lives up the street still do all the eagle scout interviews? That would blow my mind if that guy is still alive. He used to always ask the same questions. It was about like...hypoxia?/altitude sickness, hypothermia, and something else.
Today for our morning exercise, Elder Johnson and I decided to run to McDonalds which is around the corner and eat some breakfast. It was good. Running is not that easy when you haven't run for 2 years though. It wasn't too bad though...I think the bikes have helped out with that.
Before I forget, I've got one last thing. I've got only 2 pairs of contacts left, so if I keep both of them in for a month each, I will barely make it, but I'll be pushing it. Is there any way I can get 1 more pair sent to me? I'm pretty sure my prescription is for -1.75 in both eyes, which is probably going to need to be readjusted when I get back. I've got the nigh & day brand.
Ok, I think that's about all for this week. I love you all and hope you have a good week!!!
Love,
Chase
Happy Birthday on Wednesday Kylie!!! It sounds like you're going to have a pretty good party. I love ice cream cake. And molten lava cakes. I hope you have a good party.
The weeks have definitely been flying by here too. We are already about to start week 5 of the transfer. We've had a lot of good things happen this week though. We taught the Mendez family again, which is the family I wrote about last week where the husband was pretty mad at first to see us again. This time the wife was awake so we got him to go invite her. He said she would never come and listen, but we told him to go try any way, and he did and she came and joined us. We taught him, his wife, and his brother. It was a pretty good lesson. We left them with Books of Mormon and gave them part of King Benjamin's speech to read. We're going back tomorrow.
We found a lot of other new people to teach this week too. I think we got 6 new investigators. We have been trying something where instead of just trying to set up return appointments, we ask people if we can teach them right then. Surprisingly a couple people of week say yes and that is how we've been finding a lot of new people. Here are two cool stories. The first one is that last Monday at the end of our P-day, we were riding our bikes down Westheimer, which is the big, very busy, main street that runs through our area, and I saw this Hispanic guy riding his bike across the street with some groceries. I started talking to him, then I asked him if he lived in the apartments that were down the street a little bit, he said yes. So I asked him if we could come back to him apartment with him and share an important message with him. He surprisingly said yes. My companion couldn't hear much of what was going on because of all the traffic and everything and when he saw me get off my bike, he was like, what are we doing? I told him we were going back to this guy's apartment to teach him, so we did. His two roommates were drunk, so he didn't want us to go in, so we taught him on some benches in the courtyard of the apartment complex. It was a really good lesson, and my companion extended his first Spanish baptismal date, and he accepted. It was pretty awesome.
The second story is that we were riding our bikes down Westheimer again and we stopped to talk to a couple of people at the bus stop. As soon as I started to talk to this guy I saw the bus coming down the road, so I gave him a card and told him we have a really important message we need to share with him, and to call the number so missionaries can come by and share it to him. He asked if I could just tell it to him there. I told him its not a message you can just share in a couple of seconds, and that his bus was there and we didn't want him to miss his bus. He said..."Nah its cool man, I can just catch another bus. I want to hear your message." So we sat down on the grass on the corner of this busy road and taught this guy. He was really really open to it and we extended a baptismal date to him too. We gave him as a referral to this English Elders, so they are teaching him now. It was a pretty cool experience.
So those were some of our good experience of the week. On a funnier note, we talk to Lars (the guy we live with) most nights when we get home and as you can imagine, he is a pretty interesting guy. Being single at the age of 40, you have a lot of free time on your hands. He is waaay into studying about the end of the world and dissecting the book of Revelation in the Bible. He is pretty sure he's got in all figured out. The second coming will be in 2037, and all the big signs you read about in Revelation will start coming to pass after the year 2017. He is really serious about this stuff, so he has been preparing with food storage and all sorts of crazy things. Some of the things hes got are 500 lbs of wheat, 50 lbs of baking soda, he is building a massive water storage holder (like thousands of gallons), he's building an electromagnetic generator to produce electricity, and his newest project which I just learned about this week is that he wants to start raising chickens. The only problem is that it is against some city code to have chickens, so he is going to do it upstairs in his attic. He bought 3 fertilized chicken eggs, which should be arriving any time, and he's got this chicken egg incubator, which probably came off the internet too. When he was describing this whole thing, I kept thinking of that scene in Napoleon Dynamite where they try to buy a time machine off the internet and they've got these crystals and everything. I told him that's what it reminded me of and he just laughed. We'll see what happens with that. It is all good entertainment, that is for sure.
That is exciting that Zak is getting his Eagle project done. Has he gotten all the merit badges he needs? I remember I had to go to camp trask to finish off a couple. Does that old man who lives up the street still do all the eagle scout interviews? That would blow my mind if that guy is still alive. He used to always ask the same questions. It was about like...hypoxia?/altitude sickness, hypothermia, and something else.
Today for our morning exercise, Elder Johnson and I decided to run to McDonalds which is around the corner and eat some breakfast. It was good. Running is not that easy when you haven't run for 2 years though. It wasn't too bad though...I think the bikes have helped out with that.
Before I forget, I've got one last thing. I've got only 2 pairs of contacts left, so if I keep both of them in for a month each, I will barely make it, but I'll be pushing it. Is there any way I can get 1 more pair sent to me? I'm pretty sure my prescription is for -1.75 in both eyes, which is probably going to need to be readjusted when I get back. I've got the nigh & day brand.
Ok, I think that's about all for this week. I love you all and hope you have a good week!!!
Love,
Chase
Monday, May 10, 2010
Received Mon May 10, 2010
Dear Family,
Well I think were all pretty much up to date from our conversation last night. The only thing I can think of to report on is yesterday at church, we had an awesome Sunday. We finally had a lot of people come. Only one of them was an investigator, but we got 4 other good sized less active families to finally come back to church. We counted up 14 people who we invited who finally came. That really makes a huge difference in a small ward like the one we have. It made for a good Sunday. I think it got the bishop and everyone else excited too. Most of them left after the first hour, but it was still a huge step to see them in sacrament meeting. Hopefully we'll see them keep coming.
Our area is doing a lot better now too. We have found some pretty good people this week that were going to be able to go back and teach this week. The best part about it is that they live in houses as opposed to apartment complexes where literally every single other Hispanic person we've met live. So hopefully they are a little bit more stable and wont disappear one day and maybe they'll even have cars to be able to get themselves to church. One of those families is actually a part member family. We talked to the wife in the driveway 5-6 days ago and she told us how her husband actually got baptized in Mexico. We were all excited and went back one day to meet him and we were met by a man (her husband) who was not very happy and said nobody in that home has faith in God. We asked him some questions and got him thinking about everything and a lot about how he felt when he was getting taught by the missionaries and by the end of the conversation he liked us and he let us make a return appointment for the next day. So we taught him yesterday and it went pretty well. The mom was asleep though, so next time were going to try to teach them all.
Ok, about housing at BYU. I think the best choice is probably going to be to have Christopher and Steven just choose a place for me to live and I can always change it sometime later if I feel like it. How does it all work? Do you have to sign a lease for a certain amount of time or what? If I got signed up for a place this month, but found a different place to live when I got back, would I be able to change it? If not, would I be able to change it at the end of the semester? I really have no plans at all right now, so either way the best thing to do is probably to have CJ and ST find a place for me to live and sign me up for classes.
That's too bad Christopher has got such a bad sunburn. I've never felt the aloe vera thing before. I think I have put it on though..I don't remember very well what happened. I haven't gotten a sunburn for a looong long time. Lets just say I have a pretty bad farmer's tan. And a watch tan. And a collar tan on my neck. I am going to try not to get the bike helmet strap tan lines.
Ok that is all I can think of for this week. We are starting week 4 of the transfer...it is flying by fast. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!
Love,
Chase
PS. Its true that the obedience stuff has helped a lot, but I was talking about the # of baptismal DATES we have not baptisms. Right now we are baptizing around 40 a month which is still about double what we use to be doing.
Well I think were all pretty much up to date from our conversation last night. The only thing I can think of to report on is yesterday at church, we had an awesome Sunday. We finally had a lot of people come. Only one of them was an investigator, but we got 4 other good sized less active families to finally come back to church. We counted up 14 people who we invited who finally came. That really makes a huge difference in a small ward like the one we have. It made for a good Sunday. I think it got the bishop and everyone else excited too. Most of them left after the first hour, but it was still a huge step to see them in sacrament meeting. Hopefully we'll see them keep coming.
Our area is doing a lot better now too. We have found some pretty good people this week that were going to be able to go back and teach this week. The best part about it is that they live in houses as opposed to apartment complexes where literally every single other Hispanic person we've met live. So hopefully they are a little bit more stable and wont disappear one day and maybe they'll even have cars to be able to get themselves to church. One of those families is actually a part member family. We talked to the wife in the driveway 5-6 days ago and she told us how her husband actually got baptized in Mexico. We were all excited and went back one day to meet him and we were met by a man (her husband) who was not very happy and said nobody in that home has faith in God. We asked him some questions and got him thinking about everything and a lot about how he felt when he was getting taught by the missionaries and by the end of the conversation he liked us and he let us make a return appointment for the next day. So we taught him yesterday and it went pretty well. The mom was asleep though, so next time were going to try to teach them all.
Ok, about housing at BYU. I think the best choice is probably going to be to have Christopher and Steven just choose a place for me to live and I can always change it sometime later if I feel like it. How does it all work? Do you have to sign a lease for a certain amount of time or what? If I got signed up for a place this month, but found a different place to live when I got back, would I be able to change it? If not, would I be able to change it at the end of the semester? I really have no plans at all right now, so either way the best thing to do is probably to have CJ and ST find a place for me to live and sign me up for classes.
That's too bad Christopher has got such a bad sunburn. I've never felt the aloe vera thing before. I think I have put it on though..I don't remember very well what happened. I haven't gotten a sunburn for a looong long time. Lets just say I have a pretty bad farmer's tan. And a watch tan. And a collar tan on my neck. I am going to try not to get the bike helmet strap tan lines.
Ok that is all I can think of for this week. We are starting week 4 of the transfer...it is flying by fast. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!
Love,
Chase
PS. Its true that the obedience stuff has helped a lot, but I was talking about the # of baptismal DATES we have not baptisms. Right now we are baptizing around 40 a month which is still about double what we use to be doing.
Received Mon May 3, 2010
Dear Family,
Dad's two comments about me in high school are pretty accurate. I went to sleep at around 9 or 9:30 my freshman and sophomore year, then my last 2 years I would usually go to bed around 10 or 10:30. And for at least my first two years in high school Dad would read to me at night. That's how I heard like 5 of the Harry Potter books.
BYU Stuff: I think it would be good if Steven could register me for some classes. I can always try to change it afterwards, but I think it would be smart to try to get some good classes early on. I'm probably going to need to take Statistics and some computer class to finish my prerequisites for the business school. I've thought it might be fun to take a soccer class too. Either that or a racquetball class.
Mother's Day Call: We found a member who will let us use their phone. We are planning at calling around 7:30 our time, so that's 5:30 your time I'm pretty sure. Hopefully that will work out.
This has been another good week in Houston 1. This is probably the hardest Elder Johnson and I have both worked in our missions. President Saylin got back from a meeting in Arizona where they met with some other general authorities, and one of the things they talked about was how in South America there are no cars, but in the US there are tons of cars and missionaries miss out on a lot of opportunities to talk to people. They gave promises to the mission presidents there that if the missionaries would park the cars and use bikes and rely on members to help them, we will always have people to teach. So he extended a challenge to all of us, that if we want we can accept, to park our cars for the month and not use them at all. So we've been doing it this week. It has been a HOT and reeeally humid week too. We rode our bikes to church and everything. Were definitely starting to run into some complications with dinner appointments all the way on the other side of the area from where we have all our other appointments throughout that day. And our area is huuge, so it is a challenge. We'll see what happens. I don't think I've ever sweat so much in my life. But we have found a lot of people to teach.
Here is a cool story. When we were riding home from church yesterday, we were talking to people along the way. I pulled over on my bike to talk to these two Hispanic guys walking down the rode and as I turned to talk to them, I realized I recognized one of them. It was Victor Hernandez, an awesome guy from Nicaragua that I taught while I was in Houston 2. He came to church several times, he was living all the commandments, and he had a baptismal date, then he disappeared because they all got evicted from their apartment. He had just gotten jumped too so he didn't have any phone. He was really happy to see us again yesterday. He said he's recently been thinking a lot about us and he wanted us to start coming by again, but every time he saw the missionaries they were always far away, so he was never able to flag them down. That would be cool if he was living in our area, but hes not. He's still back in Houston 2. So I passed on the referral to them. It made my day though.
We also saw another crazy thing happen. We were getting a ride home from our last appointment last night and as we were driving down one of the main streets in our area, these 2 cars zoomed passed us. One was an older Cadillac and the other one was a new Lincoln. They kept cutting each other off and they kept slamming on the brakes trying and they were trying to run each other off the road. They would actually bump into each other too...it was crazy. At one point the Lincoln actually pushed the Cadillac off the road onto the center median thing. Then when they passed through this intersection the Lincoln managed to pin the Cadillac between the median and his car, then they both jumped out of the car. We thought we were about to see someone get shot. Luckily neither of them had guns, and the one Cadillac guy jumped back into his car and back out into the intersection, into oncoming traffic and flew down the road. It was pretty crazy. I think it was probably just a bad case of road rage.
Everything has been going well. Elder Johnson and I are good friends. Spanish is going really well too. It has been awesome being back in a full Spanish area.
Oh yeah...Blue Bell Ice Cream. That's like the pride and joy of Texas. Its probably one of the first things I heard about when I got here. Its a brand of ice cream that I think they only sell in Texas. They have alll sorts of different flavors. It is all pretty good, but in my opinion (I would probably be hanged if I said this out loud here), I think its a little overrated and definitely over priced. Its like $5.75 - $6.50 for a gallon. It is pretty good though.
Ok well that's about all for this week! Have fun on your cruise Mom and Dad! Have a good week everyone...I love you!
Love,
Chase
Dad's two comments about me in high school are pretty accurate. I went to sleep at around 9 or 9:30 my freshman and sophomore year, then my last 2 years I would usually go to bed around 10 or 10:30. And for at least my first two years in high school Dad would read to me at night. That's how I heard like 5 of the Harry Potter books.
BYU Stuff: I think it would be good if Steven could register me for some classes. I can always try to change it afterwards, but I think it would be smart to try to get some good classes early on. I'm probably going to need to take Statistics and some computer class to finish my prerequisites for the business school. I've thought it might be fun to take a soccer class too. Either that or a racquetball class.
Mother's Day Call: We found a member who will let us use their phone. We are planning at calling around 7:30 our time, so that's 5:30 your time I'm pretty sure. Hopefully that will work out.
This has been another good week in Houston 1. This is probably the hardest Elder Johnson and I have both worked in our missions. President Saylin got back from a meeting in Arizona where they met with some other general authorities, and one of the things they talked about was how in South America there are no cars, but in the US there are tons of cars and missionaries miss out on a lot of opportunities to talk to people. They gave promises to the mission presidents there that if the missionaries would park the cars and use bikes and rely on members to help them, we will always have people to teach. So he extended a challenge to all of us, that if we want we can accept, to park our cars for the month and not use them at all. So we've been doing it this week. It has been a HOT and reeeally humid week too. We rode our bikes to church and everything. Were definitely starting to run into some complications with dinner appointments all the way on the other side of the area from where we have all our other appointments throughout that day. And our area is huuge, so it is a challenge. We'll see what happens. I don't think I've ever sweat so much in my life. But we have found a lot of people to teach.
Here is a cool story. When we were riding home from church yesterday, we were talking to people along the way. I pulled over on my bike to talk to these two Hispanic guys walking down the rode and as I turned to talk to them, I realized I recognized one of them. It was Victor Hernandez, an awesome guy from Nicaragua that I taught while I was in Houston 2. He came to church several times, he was living all the commandments, and he had a baptismal date, then he disappeared because they all got evicted from their apartment. He had just gotten jumped too so he didn't have any phone. He was really happy to see us again yesterday. He said he's recently been thinking a lot about us and he wanted us to start coming by again, but every time he saw the missionaries they were always far away, so he was never able to flag them down. That would be cool if he was living in our area, but hes not. He's still back in Houston 2. So I passed on the referral to them. It made my day though.
We also saw another crazy thing happen. We were getting a ride home from our last appointment last night and as we were driving down one of the main streets in our area, these 2 cars zoomed passed us. One was an older Cadillac and the other one was a new Lincoln. They kept cutting each other off and they kept slamming on the brakes trying and they were trying to run each other off the road. They would actually bump into each other too...it was crazy. At one point the Lincoln actually pushed the Cadillac off the road onto the center median thing. Then when they passed through this intersection the Lincoln managed to pin the Cadillac between the median and his car, then they both jumped out of the car. We thought we were about to see someone get shot. Luckily neither of them had guns, and the one Cadillac guy jumped back into his car and back out into the intersection, into oncoming traffic and flew down the road. It was pretty crazy. I think it was probably just a bad case of road rage.
Everything has been going well. Elder Johnson and I are good friends. Spanish is going really well too. It has been awesome being back in a full Spanish area.
Oh yeah...Blue Bell Ice Cream. That's like the pride and joy of Texas. Its probably one of the first things I heard about when I got here. Its a brand of ice cream that I think they only sell in Texas. They have alll sorts of different flavors. It is all pretty good, but in my opinion (I would probably be hanged if I said this out loud here), I think its a little overrated and definitely over priced. Its like $5.75 - $6.50 for a gallon. It is pretty good though.
Ok well that's about all for this week! Have fun on your cruise Mom and Dad! Have a good week everyone...I love you!
Love,
Chase
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