I am sure everyone was wondering why I didn't e-mail this week, so I'll answer that question first. Monday was MLK day so all the libraries were closed and we had no place to e-mail. So, we planned on just e-mailing the next day. We forgot that we were going on exchanges that day, so we couldn't e-mail that day. Since we've just been so busy we haven't even been able to even stop by to e-mail home and let our families know whats goin on.
So that's whats goin on for me right now. I'm just going to wait to write a real e-mail home on Monday, but I wanted to let everyone know what's going on.
We have been really busy though, here's a couple of the things that are going on. We've got 4-6 pretty good investigators that are progressing so we are visiting them as much as possible. We're actually planning on giving out some baptismal dates in the next week or so. Then we've got like 15 other investigators who aren't progressing for whatever reason, so we need to stop by them and either drop them or get them progressing again.
We also have 10 focus families we try to visit weekly. Focus families are families that the ward/branch councils have chosen for us to focus on and visit weekly. They're usually recent converts or widows or people who just need some strengthening. We have 5 families from the ward and 5 from the branch. So we need to visit all of them every week.
Then the bishop and mission president have asked us to start going through the ward directory and trying to contact people and see if they even live on the island anymore (because they might have moved away because of the hurricane). We've also been challenged by the zone leaders to go through our area book and try to contact some old investigators.
SO...basically we're busy all of the time, which is a really good thing. That's all I've got for this week, but I'll be sure to write a good one on Monday.
I did get Christopher's wooden pen. I'm really amazed by it. I use it to write in my journal. That reminds me, I'm almost out of pages in my journal. I only have like 5 pages left, so I was wondering if you could send me another journal. I trust Mom's judgment on choosing a journal. I'm not picky at all about what it looks like or anything. I made a new year's resolution to write in my journal at least every other day. I've been doing pretty good, but I wont be able to write much longer if I have no more pages.
I'm sorry I couldn't e-mail sooner this week, but I love you all and miss everyone! I am also so happy and honored to be able to be a missionary. It's an amazing thing to be able to be a representative of Jesus Christ's church and I realize I'm only going to have two years to do this so I am working with all my heart might mind and strength. Ok, I'll be sure to write in a couple days!!!
Love,
Chase
Friday, January 23, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Received Mon Jan 12, 2009
Nooooooooo...the chargers lost. That's ok...I actually don't care that much because I didn't get to watch them this year anyway. The 4 teams that are still left are a huge surprise to me. The Eagles might actually make it all the way this year!
Anyway...its been a pretty long week. After I e-mailed last week we went to Bolivar peninsula again, except this time we brought a car with us across the ferry so we could drive around the island and see more. It was pretty interesting; everything is still smashed and destroyed over there. We did see some crazy things, but all the destruction is getting kind of boring now. I took a few pictures though. But anyway, (this next part could get gross) the next day me and Elder Pedersen woke up throwing up and having some bad diarrhea. At first we thought it was food poisoning, but now we think it might have been a bug we caught on Bolivar from touching stuff. We still don't know what it was but I have never been so sick in my life. I only threw up once in the morning but I still felt nauseated all day. I've never had diarrhea so bad before. Me and Elder Pedersen spent ALL day running back and forth to and from the bathroom. Sometimes we both needed to go so we would run over and use the Brown's bathroom when they weren't home. We both felt so weak and felt like we were about to pass out by about 11am. All we could really do was lie in bed or sit at our desks. I ended up losing 6 pounds and he lost 9 pounds. Later that night I started feeling a little better and the Brown's went and got me some of my miracle juice: Powerade. Elder Pedersen got some Gatorade even though I explained to him that Powerade is far superior to Gatorade. Anyway, I drank some powerade and tried to eat a little yogurt. I surprisingly slept well that night and woke up pretty much all the way healed. I was still exhausted and worn out from the day before but I was pretty much better. Elder Pedersen still had some sickness that day, so we had to stay in again. So on Thursday we finally got to go out and work again.
Thursday is our weekly planning session day though, so we had a pretty long planning session. We wrote down all the names of the people we need to visit and we came up with 15-20 people. Were definitely going to be pretty busy for a while. We've got to sift through these people. A lot of these people are investigators that hit an obstacle and stopped progressing. So we've been visiting these people and we've been pretty bold, and told them they need to get their priorities straight or they will never be able to stay happy. Pretty much nobody could deny what we told them, but they just cant force themselves to take the next step. So were currently sifting through these people, trying to kick them into shape and if they don't respond, we drop them.
Montanna did get baptized yesterday. We changed it from Saturday to Sunday, because Abraham and Paulette both had to work on Saturday. It turned out really really well. A TON of people showed up. Usually only like 15 people come to a baptism including missionaries and the person's family, but this time there was easily 30+ people there. Montanna is 12 so we've really been trying to work with the Young Women to help get her involved. I remember hearing a talk from somewhere, I'm not sure, but they were saying how full conversion has two parts: spiritual and social. Missionaries are in charge of the spiritual side, but the members really need to do the social side. So, we had some of the young women Montanna had already started making friends with do the talks and prayers. All of the young women actually showed up, so it turned out really well. She's going to be a good member. It was really neat to watch that family form. It started as Abraham by himself and now he has a wife, and 2 kids there. His other son really wants to move in too. By the way, we found out that the problem in the family is definitely Kim, not Abraham. Kim is probably the most dramatic girl I've ever met. She basically lied to us about everything. Everyone else in the family is ok, but she is pretty lost right now. She's acting like she's trying to find a new religion now and shes basically doing EVERYthing she can to get attention. She was one of the people we were really bold with and told her she's messing up her life. I'm sure she'll come around again. I'm just glad that the Perez family is still strong.
We got transfer calls this morning and I am NOT getting transferred! I will be starting my fourth transfer here. I've been here for over 4 months already...time has flown by. I wanted to stay for one more transfer here and sift through these people and find another person who is ready to receive the gospel. Last night I got an epiphany and realized who we need to focus on and who is probably ready to receive the gospel. Her name is Somang, she is from Korea and shes is going to be living here with her aunt, who is a member. That family is really strong in the church, and Somang has already come to church twice. We've always wanted to visit her but we have so much on our plate right now that we have totally forgot about her. So I'm excited to start teaching her and I have pretty good hopes for her.
No, I don't think I noticed the moon on the 10th. I was definitely outside but I don't particularly remember the moon. The moon always looks HUGE here. Ive seen it a couple times where it was just barely over the horizon of the water and it was a full moon and the moon was red and orange and HUGE. It always looks cool when its out above the gulf of Mexico.
Nope I haven't tried my debit card since last weeks e-mail. That's about all I can remember for this week.
I'm happy I'm staying for another transfer here in Galveston. I know this place like the back of my hand. I not only know all the streets and all the buildings, but I know where all the bumps in the sidewalk are and where the sidewalk starts and ends on each street. When we get referrals I can look at the address and tell you if its at the start of the block, middle, or end. Its pretty fun when you get to know a place so well. I've been having a ton of fun while working hard, and that is when you do the best work. You teach better, you find better, and you're just a better missionary when you're always in a good mood and you've got a smile on your face.
Ok, well that's all for this week. I need to go buy one of those pouch things so I can send that flash drive home.
I love you all!
Love,
Chase
Anyway...its been a pretty long week. After I e-mailed last week we went to Bolivar peninsula again, except this time we brought a car with us across the ferry so we could drive around the island and see more. It was pretty interesting; everything is still smashed and destroyed over there. We did see some crazy things, but all the destruction is getting kind of boring now. I took a few pictures though. But anyway, (this next part could get gross) the next day me and Elder Pedersen woke up throwing up and having some bad diarrhea. At first we thought it was food poisoning, but now we think it might have been a bug we caught on Bolivar from touching stuff. We still don't know what it was but I have never been so sick in my life. I only threw up once in the morning but I still felt nauseated all day. I've never had diarrhea so bad before. Me and Elder Pedersen spent ALL day running back and forth to and from the bathroom. Sometimes we both needed to go so we would run over and use the Brown's bathroom when they weren't home. We both felt so weak and felt like we were about to pass out by about 11am. All we could really do was lie in bed or sit at our desks. I ended up losing 6 pounds and he lost 9 pounds. Later that night I started feeling a little better and the Brown's went and got me some of my miracle juice: Powerade. Elder Pedersen got some Gatorade even though I explained to him that Powerade is far superior to Gatorade. Anyway, I drank some powerade and tried to eat a little yogurt. I surprisingly slept well that night and woke up pretty much all the way healed. I was still exhausted and worn out from the day before but I was pretty much better. Elder Pedersen still had some sickness that day, so we had to stay in again. So on Thursday we finally got to go out and work again.
Thursday is our weekly planning session day though, so we had a pretty long planning session. We wrote down all the names of the people we need to visit and we came up with 15-20 people. Were definitely going to be pretty busy for a while. We've got to sift through these people. A lot of these people are investigators that hit an obstacle and stopped progressing. So we've been visiting these people and we've been pretty bold, and told them they need to get their priorities straight or they will never be able to stay happy. Pretty much nobody could deny what we told them, but they just cant force themselves to take the next step. So were currently sifting through these people, trying to kick them into shape and if they don't respond, we drop them.
Montanna did get baptized yesterday. We changed it from Saturday to Sunday, because Abraham and Paulette both had to work on Saturday. It turned out really really well. A TON of people showed up. Usually only like 15 people come to a baptism including missionaries and the person's family, but this time there was easily 30+ people there. Montanna is 12 so we've really been trying to work with the Young Women to help get her involved. I remember hearing a talk from somewhere, I'm not sure, but they were saying how full conversion has two parts: spiritual and social. Missionaries are in charge of the spiritual side, but the members really need to do the social side. So, we had some of the young women Montanna had already started making friends with do the talks and prayers. All of the young women actually showed up, so it turned out really well. She's going to be a good member. It was really neat to watch that family form. It started as Abraham by himself and now he has a wife, and 2 kids there. His other son really wants to move in too. By the way, we found out that the problem in the family is definitely Kim, not Abraham. Kim is probably the most dramatic girl I've ever met. She basically lied to us about everything. Everyone else in the family is ok, but she is pretty lost right now. She's acting like she's trying to find a new religion now and shes basically doing EVERYthing she can to get attention. She was one of the people we were really bold with and told her she's messing up her life. I'm sure she'll come around again. I'm just glad that the Perez family is still strong.
We got transfer calls this morning and I am NOT getting transferred! I will be starting my fourth transfer here. I've been here for over 4 months already...time has flown by. I wanted to stay for one more transfer here and sift through these people and find another person who is ready to receive the gospel. Last night I got an epiphany and realized who we need to focus on and who is probably ready to receive the gospel. Her name is Somang, she is from Korea and shes is going to be living here with her aunt, who is a member. That family is really strong in the church, and Somang has already come to church twice. We've always wanted to visit her but we have so much on our plate right now that we have totally forgot about her. So I'm excited to start teaching her and I have pretty good hopes for her.
No, I don't think I noticed the moon on the 10th. I was definitely outside but I don't particularly remember the moon. The moon always looks HUGE here. Ive seen it a couple times where it was just barely over the horizon of the water and it was a full moon and the moon was red and orange and HUGE. It always looks cool when its out above the gulf of Mexico.
Nope I haven't tried my debit card since last weeks e-mail. That's about all I can remember for this week.
I'm happy I'm staying for another transfer here in Galveston. I know this place like the back of my hand. I not only know all the streets and all the buildings, but I know where all the bumps in the sidewalk are and where the sidewalk starts and ends on each street. When we get referrals I can look at the address and tell you if its at the start of the block, middle, or end. Its pretty fun when you get to know a place so well. I've been having a ton of fun while working hard, and that is when you do the best work. You teach better, you find better, and you're just a better missionary when you're always in a good mood and you've got a smile on your face.
Ok, well that's all for this week. I need to go buy one of those pouch things so I can send that flash drive home.
I love you all!
Love,
Chase
Monday, January 5, 2009
Received Mon, Jan 5, 2009
Happy birthday Zak!!!
I totally didn't realize last week when I was writing my e-mail that your birthday was going to be that week. Then the next day as soon as I wrote down the date I realized it was your birthday! So have you been working on getting your drivers license? I procrastinated a while and I don't think I got mine until the end of my Junior year. I definitely would at least get started on getting your permit pretty soon though.
Hooray...we finally got to go out and work this week. We did really well too. We found 13 new investigators and we had 6 people at church yesterday! As a whole district I we had 10 or 11 at church, so it was a pretty successful week.
On Tuesday one of the APs (assistants to the pres) spent the day with us. His companion was in Texas City with those Elders trying to solve some problems going on down there. Elder Zolman is the one who was with us. He served in Galveston for the first 11 months of his mission, so he knew the area really well and knew a lot of members. Hes one of my favorite missionaries out here and I really learned a lot from that day. We were pretty bold with a lot of people. We started talking to some guy said he was an alcoholic and he wants to start changing his life around. We asked him if he wanted to stop drinking and he said yes, so Elder Zolman was like, ok well lets start by getting rid of your beer. Surprisingly, this guy actually did it. He took his huge bottle of beer and we watched him pour it out into his front lawn. He looked pretty sad pouring the beer out, but he did it anyway.
Throughout the whole day we saw lots of crazy stuff and got a lot of laughs. We actually taught a lesson on some guys doorstep while one of his buddies was sitting on the steps with a big bag of drugs. After we taught the guy Elder Zolman looked at the druggie guy said how's it goin' or whatever. He said, Well I'm gonna make some money tonight. Elder Zolman said, "Oh really, where do you work" The guy was like, well I work for myself. Then Elder Zolman said "Hey whats in the bag." The guy was like "Tobacco." Elder Zolman said something about how that was some weird looking tobacco. There's definitely a drug problem in Galveston. We had a lot of good experiences though.
Oh yeah, we set up a baptismal date for Montanna. Her date is for January 10th which is this Saturday. Unfortunately there is a ton of drama going on in that family right now. Her new Dad (or stepdad or whatever he's called), Abraham, is super stressed out and hes severely bipolar, so he's exploded a lot of times and there are a lot of problems going on there. Kim moved out because she couldn't take it anymore and Paulette is really depressed too. Were going to focus on reconstructing this family this week. Its actually pretty stressful for me and Elder Pedersen to see all these things happening, but I'm pretty sure everything is going to be alright. I told Paulette and Kim that as long as I am here I am going to work as hard as I can and do everything possible to help them out and get Abraham some help. So that was the drama for the week.
For New Years Eve we went and ate dinner at the Rabago's, which is where we ate for Christmas Eve too. They are one of my favorite families I've met out here. They always take good care of the missionaries. They are the ones who are in charge of feeding us every Sunday after church too.
Now to comment on Mom's e-mail...How did everyone like the hockey game? I remember I went with Russell and his dad. It was fun for the first half, then we left. I did get to see 2 or 3 fights though, that was the best part. The whole reason you watch hockey games is to see fights, at least in my opinion. Same thing goes for nascar too, the only reason you watch nascar is to see the crashes.
Haha...anyway....So the Chargers won?? Someone actually told me that at church yesterday. Chargers are goin all the way this year!!
I have to say, I find it pretty that Mom and Kylie are winning in the Gridiron thing. Yes I got the package full of pictures and I loved it.
Ok, well that's all the time I have this week. Our area is still on fire and were seeing miracles happen here every day. I'm definitely going to miss this area when I leave. There are so many good members here and I have so many memories. This is the last week of the transfer too, so next Monday I find out if I stay or go.
Ok I love you all!!! Have fun in school! Study hard and get good grades!
Love,
Chase
I totally didn't realize last week when I was writing my e-mail that your birthday was going to be that week. Then the next day as soon as I wrote down the date I realized it was your birthday! So have you been working on getting your drivers license? I procrastinated a while and I don't think I got mine until the end of my Junior year. I definitely would at least get started on getting your permit pretty soon though.
Hooray...we finally got to go out and work this week. We did really well too. We found 13 new investigators and we had 6 people at church yesterday! As a whole district I we had 10 or 11 at church, so it was a pretty successful week.
On Tuesday one of the APs (assistants to the pres) spent the day with us. His companion was in Texas City with those Elders trying to solve some problems going on down there. Elder Zolman is the one who was with us. He served in Galveston for the first 11 months of his mission, so he knew the area really well and knew a lot of members. Hes one of my favorite missionaries out here and I really learned a lot from that day. We were pretty bold with a lot of people. We started talking to some guy said he was an alcoholic and he wants to start changing his life around. We asked him if he wanted to stop drinking and he said yes, so Elder Zolman was like, ok well lets start by getting rid of your beer. Surprisingly, this guy actually did it. He took his huge bottle of beer and we watched him pour it out into his front lawn. He looked pretty sad pouring the beer out, but he did it anyway.
Throughout the whole day we saw lots of crazy stuff and got a lot of laughs. We actually taught a lesson on some guys doorstep while one of his buddies was sitting on the steps with a big bag of drugs. After we taught the guy Elder Zolman looked at the druggie guy said how's it goin' or whatever. He said, Well I'm gonna make some money tonight. Elder Zolman said, "Oh really, where do you work" The guy was like, well I work for myself. Then Elder Zolman said "Hey whats in the bag." The guy was like "Tobacco." Elder Zolman said something about how that was some weird looking tobacco. There's definitely a drug problem in Galveston. We had a lot of good experiences though.
Oh yeah, we set up a baptismal date for Montanna. Her date is for January 10th which is this Saturday. Unfortunately there is a ton of drama going on in that family right now. Her new Dad (or stepdad or whatever he's called), Abraham, is super stressed out and hes severely bipolar, so he's exploded a lot of times and there are a lot of problems going on there. Kim moved out because she couldn't take it anymore and Paulette is really depressed too. Were going to focus on reconstructing this family this week. Its actually pretty stressful for me and Elder Pedersen to see all these things happening, but I'm pretty sure everything is going to be alright. I told Paulette and Kim that as long as I am here I am going to work as hard as I can and do everything possible to help them out and get Abraham some help. So that was the drama for the week.
For New Years Eve we went and ate dinner at the Rabago's, which is where we ate for Christmas Eve too. They are one of my favorite families I've met out here. They always take good care of the missionaries. They are the ones who are in charge of feeding us every Sunday after church too.
Now to comment on Mom's e-mail...How did everyone like the hockey game? I remember I went with Russell and his dad. It was fun for the first half, then we left. I did get to see 2 or 3 fights though, that was the best part. The whole reason you watch hockey games is to see fights, at least in my opinion. Same thing goes for nascar too, the only reason you watch nascar is to see the crashes.
Haha...anyway....So the Chargers won?? Someone actually told me that at church yesterday. Chargers are goin all the way this year!!
I have to say, I find it pretty that Mom and Kylie are winning in the Gridiron thing. Yes I got the package full of pictures and I loved it.
Ok, well that's all the time I have this week. Our area is still on fire and were seeing miracles happen here every day. I'm definitely going to miss this area when I leave. There are so many good members here and I have so many memories. This is the last week of the transfer too, so next Monday I find out if I stay or go.
Ok I love you all!!! Have fun in school! Study hard and get good grades!
Love,
Chase
Monday, December 29, 2008
Received Mon Dec 29, 2008
That was a pretty good email for doing it last minute and with not much to write about.
So Sterling got the LAN party sponsored by Monster??? What does that mean? Did they give everyone energy drinks or something? I remember at last years LAN party I won 1v1's and me and Steven won the 2v2s. Last year I found out that caffeine doesn't really do much to my body. On Halloween I was going to pull an all nighter watching Halloween movies all night but I was really tired, so I drank two cans of Rockstar energy drink then fell asleep half an hour later.
This morning Elder Pedersen and I called the famous 1-800-555-TELL to check the Chargers Bronco's game (remember the chargers are my favorite team and the bronco's are elder Pedersen's favorite team and whoever won this game goes on to the playoffs) and I was very happy to see my boys dominated. They're gonna pull a Giants and become amazing at the end of the year and win the super bowl.But anyway, this week has been pretty uneventful. We haven't really left the apartment since last Sunday. Ive been going crazy and getting pretty restless. Last night we did get to go out though. We went and taught Paulette's daughter, Montanna, who just moved in. She is 12 years old. Paulette and Kim have been talking to her all about their baptisms and how great the church is and Montanna came to church yesterday and loved it. So halfway through the lesson as we were talking about authority and baptism, she said "So...when can I be baptized??" That's every missionaries dream. She said she wants to get baptized next week, but we need to teach her everything first, so we set her date for January 10th. Abraham's son who is 10 was also there last night. He's only going to be there for a week because he usually lives with his mom in a different city. After Montanna asked to be baptized, Abraham's son asked us if he could be baptized too. He told us that the baptists baptized him when he was younger, but they didn't have the correct authority. This kid is a genius. He completely understood everything he taught and he even said the prayer at the end of the lesson. It was a really and successful lesson. We did an object lesson and we had both of them jumping up and down getting really excited, yelling out "this is so fun!!" They are both very smart...smarter than most adults we teach. All in all it was an amazing lesson and it felt really good to finally get out and teach. It got Elder Pedersen re-excited again too, so that will give him more motivation to want to get out and start working again.
Today we played miniature golf...it was pretty fun. I tied with Elder Pedersen. We're going to have to play again next week for a tie breaker. I'm also getting ready to send home picture on that flash drive again. I think the whole flash drive thing was a great idea, especially when I figured out how to write captions on the pictures. But I was just wondering if you wanted me to print out some pictures too. Obviously it would be cheaper not to, but if you want me to I can.
Ok, I've got to go now. I loved being able to talk to everyone on Christmas. I pray for you guys every night.
I love you all!!!
Chase
So Sterling got the LAN party sponsored by Monster??? What does that mean? Did they give everyone energy drinks or something? I remember at last years LAN party I won 1v1's and me and Steven won the 2v2s. Last year I found out that caffeine doesn't really do much to my body. On Halloween I was going to pull an all nighter watching Halloween movies all night but I was really tired, so I drank two cans of Rockstar energy drink then fell asleep half an hour later.
This morning Elder Pedersen and I called the famous 1-800-555-TELL to check the Chargers Bronco's game (remember the chargers are my favorite team and the bronco's are elder Pedersen's favorite team and whoever won this game goes on to the playoffs) and I was very happy to see my boys dominated. They're gonna pull a Giants and become amazing at the end of the year and win the super bowl.But anyway, this week has been pretty uneventful. We haven't really left the apartment since last Sunday. Ive been going crazy and getting pretty restless. Last night we did get to go out though. We went and taught Paulette's daughter, Montanna, who just moved in. She is 12 years old. Paulette and Kim have been talking to her all about their baptisms and how great the church is and Montanna came to church yesterday and loved it. So halfway through the lesson as we were talking about authority and baptism, she said "So...when can I be baptized??" That's every missionaries dream. She said she wants to get baptized next week, but we need to teach her everything first, so we set her date for January 10th. Abraham's son who is 10 was also there last night. He's only going to be there for a week because he usually lives with his mom in a different city. After Montanna asked to be baptized, Abraham's son asked us if he could be baptized too. He told us that the baptists baptized him when he was younger, but they didn't have the correct authority. This kid is a genius. He completely understood everything he taught and he even said the prayer at the end of the lesson. It was a really and successful lesson. We did an object lesson and we had both of them jumping up and down getting really excited, yelling out "this is so fun!!" They are both very smart...smarter than most adults we teach. All in all it was an amazing lesson and it felt really good to finally get out and teach. It got Elder Pedersen re-excited again too, so that will give him more motivation to want to get out and start working again.
Today we played miniature golf...it was pretty fun. I tied with Elder Pedersen. We're going to have to play again next week for a tie breaker. I'm also getting ready to send home picture on that flash drive again. I think the whole flash drive thing was a great idea, especially when I figured out how to write captions on the pictures. But I was just wondering if you wanted me to print out some pictures too. Obviously it would be cheaper not to, but if you want me to I can.
Ok, I've got to go now. I loved being able to talk to everyone on Christmas. I pray for you guys every night.
I love you all!!!
Chase
Received Mon Dec 22, 2008
After thinking about it after I e-mailed last week I also decided Christmas would be the best day to call home. So it will be sometime after 7pm...that's all I know. 7 my time is 5 your time I believe. I'm pretty excited about that.
Christmas came up so fast. As a missionary your perception of time is so much more different. You measure time by transfers (6 month periods) and by weeks. For example, for me right now, the time is 3rd transfer, week 4. We had our Christmas Sunday yesterday as well...it was an interesting one for me. English and Spanish met together at the same time. When we showed up the branch president came up to us and said he needed 3 of us to translate. Well...it wasn't full on translating, but when the narrators would go up to read a scripture, we had to read it into a little microphone thing in Spanish. All the Spanish speakers had those headset things on and listened to us translating. People in English read fast!! I read Spanish as fast as I could and they still always finished before me. None of us could keep up with them. Then when I looked at the program I saw that part of the program was a song by the missionaries. I guess nobody felt it was very important to let us know before hand. It all turned out fine though...we sang Hark the Harold Angels Sing or whatever that song is called. After we finished the first verse, Elder Pedersen accidentally started singing the 1st verse again instead of the 2nd verse...it got some laughs.
We had a Spanish Branch party on Friday Night. I was on splits with the Zone Leaders and the one that was with me for the day didn't know any Spanish at all. So the party was pretty fun for me to watch. When we showed up one of the members came up to me and said that she wanted one of us to be Santa Claus. The white handbook got me out of that one though...we aren't allowed to have little kids sit on our laps, so a member of the branch presidency did it. We also got asked to sing last minute for that party.
This last week we've had a lot of investigators kind of fall off the face of the earth and lose all interest in the church, so we've been focusing on finding more people. We had another big week...we found 15 new investigators. That reminds me of a little story about our investigator named Erica. So at first she was so happy about us coming over and we helped her so much, she started seeing a ton of blessings, she even got a perfect job where she didn't have to work on Sunday. Well, she's kind of a workaholic and her boss started to pressure her to work on Sundays, so she did. She said she wanted to get a lot of money so she could buy her kid a ton of stuff for Christmas. We were pretty disappointed, but we figured we just let her be and hope that she realizes that life isn't as good without the spirit in your life. I remember using her as an example to a couple other people we were teaching. In talking about the Book of Mormon I would talk about the pride cycle: how people become really righteous, then they get blessed, then they become prideful and forget God and just glory in their riches, then they get humbled by something bad happening, then the cycle goes around again. Well, Erica just made it all the way around the cycle. She called us a couple days ago (after not talking to her for a week) and she was crying, telling us about how she got fired. She told us she needs the church back in her life and she realized how empty her life was without it. So we can start teaching her again...hopefully all goes well.
We really cracked down on Max and Angie yesterday. We told them that in order to progress spiritually they need to live the commandments, including the law of chastity. We said, spiritually, you don't just stand still. You re either progressing or you re falling back. And they can't progress when they're constantly breaking commandments. We told them they either need to get married right now, or one of them needs to move out. They took it really well. That was exactly what they needed...they needed someone to be bold with them and just tell them to their face how it is. So they are praying about that and they're going to make a decision hopefully very soon.
One of our other investigators who we were going to give a baptismal date just disappeared...this alcoholic guy that she was living with said that she moved in with her daughter in League City. There was definitely something odd about the situation...were going to try to figure it out. I don't know if I ever told you about this lady...her name is Debbie and she just got into a horrible car accident. She has 8 metal rods in her back and she's been on the verge of death. There's no reason for her to all the sudden decide to move out where shes been living forever...its kinda creepy.
Well...thats about all this week. On Christmas we have a Zone Conference and the entire mission is going to meet together in Sugar Land, then were going to open presents afterwards. They are keeping every one's Christmas packages down in Sugar Land so we can just open them there. So I'm just assuming they have it.
Oh yeah...its been freezing cold again for most of this week. Its been reeeally foggy. All the fog has been rolling off the ocean and we cant even see the ocean when we ride down sea wall anymore because the fog is so thick. By the time we make it back to our apartment at night after riding home, my hair is all wet and all my clothes have a layer of water on them. The fog is different too...its more like ocean mist than fog. You can literally see all the individual water particles floating around. I guess that's what 100% humidity is like.
Ok...I'm excited to talk to everyone on Thursday night!! I love you all and hope everyone has a great Christmas like we always do!
Love,
Chase
Christmas came up so fast. As a missionary your perception of time is so much more different. You measure time by transfers (6 month periods) and by weeks. For example, for me right now, the time is 3rd transfer, week 4. We had our Christmas Sunday yesterday as well...it was an interesting one for me. English and Spanish met together at the same time. When we showed up the branch president came up to us and said he needed 3 of us to translate. Well...it wasn't full on translating, but when the narrators would go up to read a scripture, we had to read it into a little microphone thing in Spanish. All the Spanish speakers had those headset things on and listened to us translating. People in English read fast!! I read Spanish as fast as I could and they still always finished before me. None of us could keep up with them. Then when I looked at the program I saw that part of the program was a song by the missionaries. I guess nobody felt it was very important to let us know before hand. It all turned out fine though...we sang Hark the Harold Angels Sing or whatever that song is called. After we finished the first verse, Elder Pedersen accidentally started singing the 1st verse again instead of the 2nd verse...it got some laughs.
We had a Spanish Branch party on Friday Night. I was on splits with the Zone Leaders and the one that was with me for the day didn't know any Spanish at all. So the party was pretty fun for me to watch. When we showed up one of the members came up to me and said that she wanted one of us to be Santa Claus. The white handbook got me out of that one though...we aren't allowed to have little kids sit on our laps, so a member of the branch presidency did it. We also got asked to sing last minute for that party.
This last week we've had a lot of investigators kind of fall off the face of the earth and lose all interest in the church, so we've been focusing on finding more people. We had another big week...we found 15 new investigators. That reminds me of a little story about our investigator named Erica. So at first she was so happy about us coming over and we helped her so much, she started seeing a ton of blessings, she even got a perfect job where she didn't have to work on Sunday. Well, she's kind of a workaholic and her boss started to pressure her to work on Sundays, so she did. She said she wanted to get a lot of money so she could buy her kid a ton of stuff for Christmas. We were pretty disappointed, but we figured we just let her be and hope that she realizes that life isn't as good without the spirit in your life. I remember using her as an example to a couple other people we were teaching. In talking about the Book of Mormon I would talk about the pride cycle: how people become really righteous, then they get blessed, then they become prideful and forget God and just glory in their riches, then they get humbled by something bad happening, then the cycle goes around again. Well, Erica just made it all the way around the cycle. She called us a couple days ago (after not talking to her for a week) and she was crying, telling us about how she got fired. She told us she needs the church back in her life and she realized how empty her life was without it. So we can start teaching her again...hopefully all goes well.
We really cracked down on Max and Angie yesterday. We told them that in order to progress spiritually they need to live the commandments, including the law of chastity. We said, spiritually, you don't just stand still. You re either progressing or you re falling back. And they can't progress when they're constantly breaking commandments. We told them they either need to get married right now, or one of them needs to move out. They took it really well. That was exactly what they needed...they needed someone to be bold with them and just tell them to their face how it is. So they are praying about that and they're going to make a decision hopefully very soon.
One of our other investigators who we were going to give a baptismal date just disappeared...this alcoholic guy that she was living with said that she moved in with her daughter in League City. There was definitely something odd about the situation...were going to try to figure it out. I don't know if I ever told you about this lady...her name is Debbie and she just got into a horrible car accident. She has 8 metal rods in her back and she's been on the verge of death. There's no reason for her to all the sudden decide to move out where shes been living forever...its kinda creepy.
Well...thats about all this week. On Christmas we have a Zone Conference and the entire mission is going to meet together in Sugar Land, then were going to open presents afterwards. They are keeping every one's Christmas packages down in Sugar Land so we can just open them there. So I'm just assuming they have it.
Oh yeah...its been freezing cold again for most of this week. Its been reeeally foggy. All the fog has been rolling off the ocean and we cant even see the ocean when we ride down sea wall anymore because the fog is so thick. By the time we make it back to our apartment at night after riding home, my hair is all wet and all my clothes have a layer of water on them. The fog is different too...its more like ocean mist than fog. You can literally see all the individual water particles floating around. I guess that's what 100% humidity is like.
Ok...I'm excited to talk to everyone on Thursday night!! I love you all and hope everyone has a great Christmas like we always do!
Love,
Chase
Monday, December 15, 2008
Received Mon Dec 15, 2008
Dear Family,
I wrote a letter today that I am going to send home. I've been wanting to write one for a while but whenever we get home on P-Day it is time to get out and start working again. But we were stuck inside for an hour one day, so I started a letter home then finished it this morning.
I got the package with letters and the flash drive! I got it on Tuesday. I wrote a lot of my letter about the things in there.
The weather has been CRAZY here recently. When I started to write the letter on Wednesday it was actually snowing here in Galveston. Its been pretty cold 5-6 days out of the week, so I usually wear that blue windbreaker and a longs leeve shirt. Gloves and a beanie and all that cold stuff I asked for will probably get put to good use. The wind is what makes it so cold. We almost never ride along Seawall anymore because the wind is always so strong there and it freezes your face.
Elder Pedersen and I decided to start a tradition last night. Every day we are going to write a highlight of the day in our planners. We tried to think of everything that happened this last week and these are a few of the highlights we had:
Monday: For P-day we went and played softball for 2 hours then football for an hour and a half after that. All the districts in the zone were invited. We had probably 16-18 people, so it was perfect teams. It was a ton of fun, but we paid bad for it after. I was sore for 4 days straight. Elder Pedersen was sore for 5 days. I now know what it feels like to be 90 years old. Once you sit down you dont want to get up because it hurts. Getting on and off our bikes was the worst. It was definitely worth it though, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. That was also the day Kim had a big Myspace fiasco where her "friends" from sugarland started threatening her on myspace and said some really bad things to her. She was really freaked out so we had to go give her advice and help her out. Myspaces are so stupid...never ever make one. All I ever hear about is drama that comes from it.
Tuesday: We visited some lady we met named Charlene. She invited us into her house and it was a mess. Not only was there trash and random furniture everywhere but it was like a zoo in there. Every corner we turned we saw more dogs in cages or tied up somewhere. Then she told us about her bird collection. The storm destroyed her bird room, so she put all of her birds in the kitchen. We went in there and there were probably 10 birds in different cages all over the place. They were loud birds too, like parrots, cockatoos, and other big birds. The place stunk pretty bad. I've come to realize how many people are weird and you never know what is going on inside someones house. All the houses look normal on the outside, but when you go inside you never know what to expect.
Thursday: This was the day that the Lone Star Rally started. Apparently this is a nationwide motorcycle rally that lasts for 4 days. They have it every year in Galveston. Bikers from across the country ride down here and there are a bunch of streets blocked off with stands set up for bikers to spend their money at. All we've been hearing all day long are loud motorcycles riding around everywhere. It feels like the whole island is rumbling. There are literally thousands of bikers here. There arent as many as there usually is though because the rally had to get rescheduled because of the storm. Last year there were apparently 100,000 of them. They're all gone now though, so thats nice.
Friday: We had our Zone Meeting that day and I gave a talk. A lot of people complimented me on the talk and told me it was really good, so that was satisfying.
Saturday: A big drama story happened with the missionaries today. Apparently some missionaries from different areas decided to take the day off and go check out the Lone Star Rally. A lot of the missionaries were lying and Elder Pedersen had to stay up really late trying to figure things out, which means I had to stay up late too. I was pretty tired on Sunday. Earlier in the day we gave a baptismal date to Angie though. Angie is Max's (LotR guy) girlfriend. Her date is January 24th. Shes definitely got some things to work out, but she wants to be baptized and we figured giving her a date to work towards would give her some motivation and kind of a kick to start doing better. -Sunday: We visited a recent convert named Abraham. This man can talk and talk and talk and talk. Then talk some more. He never takes a breathe. This is the guy who just barely got married and his wife (Paulette) and daughter (Kim) are the ones we just baptized. His daughter is at her mom's house and Paulette is in Dallas with her daughter who just had a baby, so Abraham has been home alone. He let it ALL out when we visited him. We were there for 2 1/2 hours and we didnt say a word in response to his stories because he never slowed down! I'm glad we went though, it did a lot of good for him.
So, thats what I've been up to! Everything I wanted to write about I wrote in there. I like this Highlights of the Day idea though...it makes things more fun and it gives me things to talk about. So much always happens every day, but its hard to remember it all. I also realized that last week I hit my 5 month mark! I'm gonna hit my 6 month mark by the end of the transfer too.
Oh yeah, so on Christmas we are going to have a Zone Conference in Sugar Land and we are going to open all our presents together afterwards. We can either call home on Christmas Eve after 7 or on Christmas Day after 7. What do you guys prefer?? I dont know if I really have a preference. I'll try to think about it and see if one day is better than the other.
Ok, that is everything. I hope you enjoy my long e-mail! I love you all and will talk to everyone later!
Love,
Chase
I wrote a letter today that I am going to send home. I've been wanting to write one for a while but whenever we get home on P-Day it is time to get out and start working again. But we were stuck inside for an hour one day, so I started a letter home then finished it this morning.
I got the package with letters and the flash drive! I got it on Tuesday. I wrote a lot of my letter about the things in there.
The weather has been CRAZY here recently. When I started to write the letter on Wednesday it was actually snowing here in Galveston. Its been pretty cold 5-6 days out of the week, so I usually wear that blue windbreaker and a longs leeve shirt. Gloves and a beanie and all that cold stuff I asked for will probably get put to good use. The wind is what makes it so cold. We almost never ride along Seawall anymore because the wind is always so strong there and it freezes your face.
Elder Pedersen and I decided to start a tradition last night. Every day we are going to write a highlight of the day in our planners. We tried to think of everything that happened this last week and these are a few of the highlights we had:
Monday: For P-day we went and played softball for 2 hours then football for an hour and a half after that. All the districts in the zone were invited. We had probably 16-18 people, so it was perfect teams. It was a ton of fun, but we paid bad for it after. I was sore for 4 days straight. Elder Pedersen was sore for 5 days. I now know what it feels like to be 90 years old. Once you sit down you dont want to get up because it hurts. Getting on and off our bikes was the worst. It was definitely worth it though, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. That was also the day Kim had a big Myspace fiasco where her "friends" from sugarland started threatening her on myspace and said some really bad things to her. She was really freaked out so we had to go give her advice and help her out. Myspaces are so stupid...never ever make one. All I ever hear about is drama that comes from it.
Tuesday: We visited some lady we met named Charlene. She invited us into her house and it was a mess. Not only was there trash and random furniture everywhere but it was like a zoo in there. Every corner we turned we saw more dogs in cages or tied up somewhere. Then she told us about her bird collection. The storm destroyed her bird room, so she put all of her birds in the kitchen. We went in there and there were probably 10 birds in different cages all over the place. They were loud birds too, like parrots, cockatoos, and other big birds. The place stunk pretty bad. I've come to realize how many people are weird and you never know what is going on inside someones house. All the houses look normal on the outside, but when you go inside you never know what to expect.
Thursday: This was the day that the Lone Star Rally started. Apparently this is a nationwide motorcycle rally that lasts for 4 days. They have it every year in Galveston. Bikers from across the country ride down here and there are a bunch of streets blocked off with stands set up for bikers to spend their money at. All we've been hearing all day long are loud motorcycles riding around everywhere. It feels like the whole island is rumbling. There are literally thousands of bikers here. There arent as many as there usually is though because the rally had to get rescheduled because of the storm. Last year there were apparently 100,000 of them. They're all gone now though, so thats nice.
Friday: We had our Zone Meeting that day and I gave a talk. A lot of people complimented me on the talk and told me it was really good, so that was satisfying.
Saturday: A big drama story happened with the missionaries today. Apparently some missionaries from different areas decided to take the day off and go check out the Lone Star Rally. A lot of the missionaries were lying and Elder Pedersen had to stay up really late trying to figure things out, which means I had to stay up late too. I was pretty tired on Sunday. Earlier in the day we gave a baptismal date to Angie though. Angie is Max's (LotR guy) girlfriend. Her date is January 24th. Shes definitely got some things to work out, but she wants to be baptized and we figured giving her a date to work towards would give her some motivation and kind of a kick to start doing better. -Sunday: We visited a recent convert named Abraham. This man can talk and talk and talk and talk. Then talk some more. He never takes a breathe. This is the guy who just barely got married and his wife (Paulette) and daughter (Kim) are the ones we just baptized. His daughter is at her mom's house and Paulette is in Dallas with her daughter who just had a baby, so Abraham has been home alone. He let it ALL out when we visited him. We were there for 2 1/2 hours and we didnt say a word in response to his stories because he never slowed down! I'm glad we went though, it did a lot of good for him.
So, thats what I've been up to! Everything I wanted to write about I wrote in there. I like this Highlights of the Day idea though...it makes things more fun and it gives me things to talk about. So much always happens every day, but its hard to remember it all. I also realized that last week I hit my 5 month mark! I'm gonna hit my 6 month mark by the end of the transfer too.
Oh yeah, so on Christmas we are going to have a Zone Conference in Sugar Land and we are going to open all our presents together afterwards. We can either call home on Christmas Eve after 7 or on Christmas Day after 7. What do you guys prefer?? I dont know if I really have a preference. I'll try to think about it and see if one day is better than the other.
Ok, that is everything. I hope you enjoy my long e-mail! I love you all and will talk to everyone later!
Love,
Chase
Monday, December 8, 2008
Received Mon Dec 8, 2008
Hmm...I'm just thinking back on this week and not much has happened here either. We only really got to go out and work 3 times this week.
Other stakes keep on sending us semi truck loads of clothes and things to give away and we have more than we can handle. This week literally a semi truck FULL of clothes came to Galveston and we (the missionaries) along with help from a few members unloaded the whole thing. The ENTIRE cultural hall was filled with clothes with only room for a few walkways between all the boxes of clothes. After church (this was last week actually, not this week) people spent hours upon hours looking at the clothes and taking boxes out to their cars. They only left when they couldn't fit anymore clothes into their cars.
So for P-day we went to the church and we had a contest to see who could find the best/funniest clothes. We did 2 rounds and we had 2 minutes to find clothes then we had to go into another room and put them on. I've got some pretty funny pictures from that.
So on Wednesday after that we had to go load all the leftover clothes into trucks to give them away to goodwill and other places like that. There were still TONS. All the donation centers are full now. On Friday we got another load full of Christmas trees, decorations, and random household items. So a lot of my week has been loading and unloaded boxes of stuff from trucks.
On Saturday we had a ward open house. We spent all week passing out invitations to all the houses that we did service for. We set up stands to show different things that we believe in. We actually had a very good turnout, which is good because we put ALL of our time into advertising for this this past week. We found 3-4 people that were going to begin teaching.
On Sunday we had the confirmations of Kim and Paulette. I confirmed Kim and Elder Pedersen confirmed Paulette. It was a really neat experience for me. I did a lot of praying and did everything I could to make sure my mind was 100% ready to be able to tell Kim everything she was meant to know. It was a really neat feeling. She had tears running down her face by the end. Paulette did too after her blessing...it was a really good Sunday.
I got my package with my swishy pants and shoes this last week. I'm actually wearing my shoes right now. I sleep in my swishy pants every night now too...its getting pretty cold. SO...that brings me on to my next point: my Christmas list.The only things I have really thought of are winter clothes. I have a rain jacket but I don't have just a normal sweater for when its just cold and not rainy out. So I would like a sweater...maybe just something like that green soft one I got for Christmas last year. Whatever you get will be perfect. I also want a beanie...my ears get freezing cold every night. Just a solid color beanie...something really cheap and simple. Hmm...oh yeah. Early on in my mission, unfortunately I think some of my garments got taken. At the Alemany's house some missionaries came to use their washer and I think they accidentally took some of my garments so I've got 2 extra tops with no bottoms. So if you ever get the chance, more garments would be good. I think I have 6 tops and bottoms, then 2 extra tops with no bottoms. So I'd get maybe 3 bottoms and 1 top or something like that. Pens would also be nice...a couple black and blue pens. Those Pilot G-2 pens you always get are nice. Somehow I have 0 black pens left...they also disappeared during all my post-hurricane adventures. Oh and also one of those cheap 10 dollar zip-up sweatshirts you can get at walmart. I had a grey one I bought in Provo...something like that would be perfect for P-day. That's everything I've thought of that I really need.
Speaking of presents...that reminds me of a funny story. One day Kim called me and Elder Pedersen and told us she was at the Renaissance Fair and that she bought us each a gift. So eventually we came over and she ran over to get her bag with our gifts in it. She pulls out my gift and its a necklace with a catholic cross on the end of it. I was like uhh...wow that's an awesome gift, thank you! And I kind of strayed the conversation away and put it in my backpack. Then she was like, oh, I thought you were going to wear it. I really did not want to wear that thing, so I thought of a good way to get myself out of the situation. I told her I would try it on, but then I had to put it in my backpack so it wouldn't get in my way when I was riding my bike home. Then she pulled out Elder Pedersen's gift and it was a really girly wand with a big pink star at the top that blinks on and off. She gave it to him and said she got it because "you're my guiding star." And she was 100% serious this whole time too. Elder Pedersen just played it off like it was the coolest gift ever. It was pretty funny. We pinned up the cross and the star wand on our wall in the apartment. I've got pictures of us with our gifts.Ive been taking a lot of pictures lately...I'll probably send that USB drive home by Christmas. Hopefully that package gets here though.
Ok well I've got to get going now. I think we're going to play softball as a zone for P-day today. I'll talk to you all later!!
Love,
Chase
Other stakes keep on sending us semi truck loads of clothes and things to give away and we have more than we can handle. This week literally a semi truck FULL of clothes came to Galveston and we (the missionaries) along with help from a few members unloaded the whole thing. The ENTIRE cultural hall was filled with clothes with only room for a few walkways between all the boxes of clothes. After church (this was last week actually, not this week) people spent hours upon hours looking at the clothes and taking boxes out to their cars. They only left when they couldn't fit anymore clothes into their cars.
So for P-day we went to the church and we had a contest to see who could find the best/funniest clothes. We did 2 rounds and we had 2 minutes to find clothes then we had to go into another room and put them on. I've got some pretty funny pictures from that.
So on Wednesday after that we had to go load all the leftover clothes into trucks to give them away to goodwill and other places like that. There were still TONS. All the donation centers are full now. On Friday we got another load full of Christmas trees, decorations, and random household items. So a lot of my week has been loading and unloaded boxes of stuff from trucks.
On Saturday we had a ward open house. We spent all week passing out invitations to all the houses that we did service for. We set up stands to show different things that we believe in. We actually had a very good turnout, which is good because we put ALL of our time into advertising for this this past week. We found 3-4 people that were going to begin teaching.
On Sunday we had the confirmations of Kim and Paulette. I confirmed Kim and Elder Pedersen confirmed Paulette. It was a really neat experience for me. I did a lot of praying and did everything I could to make sure my mind was 100% ready to be able to tell Kim everything she was meant to know. It was a really neat feeling. She had tears running down her face by the end. Paulette did too after her blessing...it was a really good Sunday.
I got my package with my swishy pants and shoes this last week. I'm actually wearing my shoes right now. I sleep in my swishy pants every night now too...its getting pretty cold. SO...that brings me on to my next point: my Christmas list.The only things I have really thought of are winter clothes. I have a rain jacket but I don't have just a normal sweater for when its just cold and not rainy out. So I would like a sweater...maybe just something like that green soft one I got for Christmas last year. Whatever you get will be perfect. I also want a beanie...my ears get freezing cold every night. Just a solid color beanie...something really cheap and simple. Hmm...oh yeah. Early on in my mission, unfortunately I think some of my garments got taken. At the Alemany's house some missionaries came to use their washer and I think they accidentally took some of my garments so I've got 2 extra tops with no bottoms. So if you ever get the chance, more garments would be good. I think I have 6 tops and bottoms, then 2 extra tops with no bottoms. So I'd get maybe 3 bottoms and 1 top or something like that. Pens would also be nice...a couple black and blue pens. Those Pilot G-2 pens you always get are nice. Somehow I have 0 black pens left...they also disappeared during all my post-hurricane adventures. Oh and also one of those cheap 10 dollar zip-up sweatshirts you can get at walmart. I had a grey one I bought in Provo...something like that would be perfect for P-day. That's everything I've thought of that I really need.
Speaking of presents...that reminds me of a funny story. One day Kim called me and Elder Pedersen and told us she was at the Renaissance Fair and that she bought us each a gift. So eventually we came over and she ran over to get her bag with our gifts in it. She pulls out my gift and its a necklace with a catholic cross on the end of it. I was like uhh...wow that's an awesome gift, thank you! And I kind of strayed the conversation away and put it in my backpack. Then she was like, oh, I thought you were going to wear it. I really did not want to wear that thing, so I thought of a good way to get myself out of the situation. I told her I would try it on, but then I had to put it in my backpack so it wouldn't get in my way when I was riding my bike home. Then she pulled out Elder Pedersen's gift and it was a really girly wand with a big pink star at the top that blinks on and off. She gave it to him and said she got it because "you're my guiding star." And she was 100% serious this whole time too. Elder Pedersen just played it off like it was the coolest gift ever. It was pretty funny. We pinned up the cross and the star wand on our wall in the apartment. I've got pictures of us with our gifts.Ive been taking a lot of pictures lately...I'll probably send that USB drive home by Christmas. Hopefully that package gets here though.
Ok well I've got to get going now. I think we're going to play softball as a zone for P-day today. I'll talk to you all later!!
Love,
Chase
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