It's been.... a week.

Alright friends, family, and countrymen.  It's been.... a week.  You know in Lord of the Rings, those scenes where Frodo and Sam are just trudging through the wilderness, and nothing is happening? You don't fast forward, (after all, this is LOTR we're talking about) but you are basically just watching so you can get to the next real scene, like a battle or something?  that was most of this week.  Walking through the rain, and no one would talk to us.  I'm not trying to complain here, this is just fact.  I wish I had a billion times more missionary work to report on this week, and I could fill you in on all these solid investigators and share miracles and stuff, but there just wasn't much this week, besides fruitless finding, and appointments falling through. 

Transfer calls were Saturday night and I am staying in Lacey.   :)  (Same address for the next 6 weeks! send me letters!)  and Elder W is staying too.  Elder H is going to be an office elder (it's hilarious, you just have to know him to get it, but you can just trust me) and Elder K is going off to ... I don't remember, but it's very far away.  I'm so sad about Elder K, so so so sad.  So is he.  He is way bummed about his next companion and area, and doesn't want to leave, he likes this zone a lot.  He's got like 8 or 9 more months left though, so i'll hopefully be in his area again one day, and worst case scenario I'll still see him on transfer meetings once every 6 weeks. 

Elder W on the other hand dies (his 2 years are up and he goes home) this transfer, I'm really happy I get to kill him (send him off). 

So, an elder out here in the WATAC did something pretty dumb this transfer, maybe I'll write about it in a letter,  but probably not, and will either be getting sent home, or to an entirely new mission (he finds out today)  and I think its because of that we have an odd number of missionaries out here.  So, one companionship will be stuck with a threesome.  One in the whole mission.  guess who?

Yep, so this next transfer it will be Me, W, and then D. 

I learned soooo much this transfer, I can already see a lot of improvement in myself.  Unfortunately, we got zero'd out. (that's a whole transfer without a baptism)  W wants to make his last transfer count, so we have a goal for 3 baptisms for this next transfer.  and to achieve that goal, we are just gonna work very hard, and have faith.  I've been thinking about Elder C, and missionary who went home a few transfers ago.  he baptized over 100 people on his mission, which is awesome, but the funny part is he wasn't even a very good missionary (both in terms of "skill" and obedience)  but what he did have was tons of faith.  Ask any missionary who has been out here for over a year and they'll tell you how important that is.  So i'm going to work on my faith this transfer, and I know that through faith AND obedience (not everyone is gonna be as lucky as Elder C without obedience haha)  I'll see miracles this transfer, and help people enter the waters of baptism.  mmm.

Let's see... I taught the Gospel Essentials class again yesterday.  I really like teaching the class, I think it's super good practice for me.  Due to a lack of solid investigators, we haven't been teaching many legit lessons, so on Sunday I get to practice :) 

On Friday, we did a training with the members in our ward about missionary work.  W and I did the training on overcoming your fears of sharing the gospel with your friends.  I think it was pretty helpful and successful, but since none of you were there,   you are all just gonna have to do it on your own!  Something I'm learning out here is sharing the gospel doesn't have to be pushy or awkward or weird or scary.  the full time missionaries are out there knocking on the doors of strangers so you don't have to, you can just talk with your friends!  How cool is that!  Gospel discussions can be way more casual than most members think.  Here is the trick: have the gospel on your mind, and be looking for ways to talk about it.  easiest way?  when talking about your weekends, say you went to church!  telling a friend that when you go to church, you feel happier is sharing a simple testimony!  when you share testimony, the spirit is invited.  and the spirit is what touches people. 

Last but not least, just be looking out for those who need it.  Remember that Jesus always stopped for the One.

Member referrals (I think) get baptized about 1/6.  Let me tell you, the ratio for knocking doors is a LOT less. 

Anyways, I love you all back home, and I love getting letters! please write me :)  Mail you get early on in your mission is called greeny mail, and everyone knows it stops pretty fast. I need you guys to help make me the exception to the rule!!!   haha, again, i really do love you!

Elder Chase Lonas

February 21, 2012

I'm pretty tired right now, it's been a hard days night!  Let me just say, 8 days a week is not enough to do missionary work! The past couple of days have been rough, but it's getting better all the time.

That sums up the Beatles portion of this email.   No solid appointments today, so we will mainly be finding people.  We do a LOT of that. I don't remember if i already mentioned this, but right before I came here, there were a bunch of baptisms, so our teaching pool is realllly small.  So our main activity is looking for investigators.  To make matters worse, one of our investigators who has been investigating for a long time now, and we thought was ready to be baptized, dropped us 2 days ago.  It's really sad because she has a testimony of the Restoration, she loves church, but she just doesn't want to "commit" to anything, like coming to church, or giving up smoking/drinking (she has made HUGE progress in giving those up, she was practically there, but she just gave up)  I'm really sad about that.  Willis gave me a mini pep talk afterwards, and basically explained that we get dropped all the time, so we have to get used to it, but it's all part of God's plan.  We don't know who has prepared and who isn't prepared yet, so we just do everything we can on our part, and don't let it get to us when we find our someone wasn't prepared.  That didn't make much sense probably.  In my defense, his wording made even less sense.  Nevertheless, it was what I needed to hear I think.

J and S broke up (for realsies this time) and since then S has been dropping us.  she hasn't made it official, but she screens our calls and has stopped talking to us, so I think we're pretty much dropped.

So.... yeah, some disappointments this week.  that's the only way I can describe it I guess.  those of you who have served missions, if you can remember your first times being dropped by people you thought were really going to get baptized, you know what I'm talking about. 

Last disappointment, N (the woman we found with the quad) went on a church tour with us, and she is so legit (we were on the church tour, and we were talking about the painting of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus, and we were starting to talk about authority, and why Jesus could only be baptized by John the Baptist, and not some random guy, and out of nowhere she was like "didn't John the baptist hold the levitcal priesthood?"  haha... willis said afterwards he'd never had an investigator know that before)  and the church tour went really well for the most part, but at our next lesson, she told us some more stuff, and I really doubt she will get baptized.  She could, of course, God knows whether or not she's prepared, not me, but her heart isn't really sincere in wanting to know the truth about it, she is just interested in the information part of what we believe.  which is cool and stuff, but the promise in Moroni 10 says we need to ask with a sincere heart, and she isn't going to do that, I don't think.  Hope I'm wrong though!

No more disappointments.

While we were on the Church Tour (CT) Elder K got a referral from some other missionaries, and we found this African family (not african american, straight up African. he moved here like 3 years ago) and I haven't met with them yet, but Elders K and H say they're really tight.  They are a Part Member Family (PMF) and we love PMF's. 

There is so much more that happenened this week, as always, but I am getting a headache from trying to remember it.  So I will close this email. 

I'm pretty sure I wrote 99% about the lowlights of the week, but for the record, there were also highlights!  There are miracles every day in the mission field, maybe next week I'll write about only miracles!  oh, speaking of which, we healed a woman with a priesthood blessing, it was really cool!  She had such strong faith in Priesthood blessings because of an experience earlier in her life.  So yeah, maybe next week will be all miracles!  Love you all, I'm happy out here, the work wasn't as fruitful as we would have hoped this week, but good stuff happens all the time, and I'm hopeful for this next week!  Write me!  Hey, speaking of writing me, Justin, you haven't written me once!  I have absolutely no one with whom I can talk about working out and stuff. 

Elder Chase Williams Lonas

Greeny Mail and Greeny Faith

Thank you so much for the CD player first of all.  And I loved!!!!! the food you sent!  Having a little supply of food like that is just the best! thank you soo much!   man i love packages.  My trainers tease me about how soon I'll stop getting greeny mail (almost every greeny gets a lot of letters/packages from back home, but it dies off pretty soon usually),  but I don't want it to die, so keep it coming please!!!!

Today is the start of another P  Day (Preparation Day: when they take a break from missionary stuff and have free time for laundry, mail, shopping, games, etc.).  I HATE P days, and that's the gospel truth.  I love emailing home and being able to write letters, but then the rest of the day is always pretty miserable.  But almost every other day each week is great :)  I should probably have things i've already thought about beforehand, that I plan to write about, but I never do. 

A lot of finding this week.  Elder H and I were tracting..... um, I don't remember the day, I think it was Thursday last week, but I could be making that up, and it was such a cool night.  Every night, we tract from 5-7 (hence the name 5-7's) and for some reason this night, I just did NOT want to tract.  our past couple nights when it was Elder H and myself we had about zero success, and a lot of irate people who do not like missionaries.  One guy made it very clear he was NOT voting for Romney haha.  That part was pretty funny.  Anyways, so I wasn't looking forward to another 2 hours of walking around in the cold getting rejected.  we had a rough first half hour, (not too rough I guess, just unsuccessful, and a few people yelled at us) and then at the half hour mark we ran into this girl called shelby.  she was taking care of a baby and stuff, so I'm just talking to her about her kids and everything, and she was really friendly, and after a few minutes she was like hey, i really gotta take care of something, but can I come to church with you guys sometime?  so we get her number and everthing, and after we left we were so pumped for the rest of the night, so we were just out there doing great, found like 4 potential investigators and then  I realize we have a half hour left, and I'm like, tonight has been so good!  But I don't know if any of these people are really gonna come through or not. and he agreed, so I was just like lets say a prayer (this is called "greeny faith," and mine is still going strong) and he's like "right here??" and I'm like yeah.  so we go to the bottom of the stores, and I gave a prayer, and I basically just thanked Heavenly Father for this night of tracting, the awesome success we've had so far and such, and then I was just like I really feel like there is a solid investigator here, who is READY to hear the gospel, if it is Thy will, please help us find them, we have a half hour left, we are gonna do everything we can do, but we need your help. 

We say amen, give each other a hug, and go to the next set of doors.  within 30 seconds from the time we said "amen", we knock on this door, and this woman named Nancy opens up.  She invites us inside, and starts talking to us.  apparently a few months ago she had been found by some missionaries, but they got transferred I think and no one followed up with her.  She is solid though.  How Solid?  Hmm, well, she pulled out a quad she had bought from a thrift store, starts flipping through the Book of Mormon, and asks "didn't Jesus come down and visit the people in America?  Was that before or after he died?"  I answer, and direct her to 3 Nephi 11 of course, and she committed to read it before our Church tour this tuesday at 6:00 PM. 

Heavenly Father has prepared people, and he answers prayers.

We tract for another 20 minutes or something, and there are just a few minutes left before 7.  We call Elders W and K to ask if they were on their way, and they were like yeah.  Elder H and I decided we could get 8 more doors though.  We start knocking, about 4 doors in we meet Alesia.  She is busy trying to get a flight back home to Oklahoma, but after talking about her home for a few minutes, she invites us back. 

Mmmm, Missionary Work :)

That was one night this past week, obviously I can only write about a fraction of goes on, but the work is good, my life is good, my companions are good, P days suck, and I love you!

Elder Chase Lonas

Received a letter and this picture from President Weaver and his wife.  They seem like wonderful people!

My Hips Don't Lie

Alright, I had so much I wanted to say, but now that I'm here I forgot so much!  hmmm, where to start???? First I want to share a... very unhappy experience, but it was... I don't know, here's whats up.

So J and S are way chill (too chill) and we love them and stuff but it's frustrating trying to set stuff up with them because they are like all over the place.  not exactly flaky, just too chill about everything I guess.  So as a missionary, its really funny because all your thoughts and energy are focused on your investigators.  I think about them all the time, I pray about/for them, Yesterday I even fasted for them (by the way I'm not supposed to ask people back home to fast for things, but I think its fine for me to ask you to keep certain people in your prayers, so will you please keep j and s in your prayers???) and then for them like they have their whole lives to think about, and we are just a small part of it.  Anyway, the church tour kept getting postponed, and it was really frustrating for us, and then finally it was supposed to be this last saturday. and we were like ok, this is definitely going to happen!  and we are all lying in bed friday night, just waiting to fall asleep, and then we get a text, so we check the phone (it's about 11) and its S, saying she and J broke up, so church tour was off, and I heard this, and my heart just broke.  I'd never felt anything like it before.  I've felt my heart break before, but its always been for myself, because I was sad, or because I felt something bad happened to me.  but my heart broke for her,and for them, and I was just so sad :(

Sometime on saturday they got back together and went to the church tour, which makes it kinda funny to look back on, like for them it was just a stupid fight or something,  but i can't believe how much that news affected me personally.

Now something fun :)

So on saturday, J and S were having their Church Tour, and so Elder W and I were at the Church just waiting (Elders K and H were giving the tour)  and this party was being set up in the Gym.  It was a Samoan party, I don't remember the purpose, buit the Samoan ward has parties ALL the time, its pretty funny.  so yeah, they force fed us (they have this thing with mayonnaise, i dont get it) and then they start the show portion of the party, so their dance group or whatever got up, and for like a half hour they were just dancing and stuff (heiner was very happy about this) and then it gets to the end and they were like ok, the girls will now come down and pick single men out from the audience to be their dance partners.  and this one girl on stage looks straight down at me, and i'm like oh shoot.  so they come down, and that girl was the first one and she walked straight towards me and was like will you come up with me? and I look at Keeney and i'm like what do i do?? and he's like I don't know son, its your life! (what kind of parenting is that??) and then he's like actually, you really need to go, because the party was half non members, and they have no idea who the elders are, they just get super offended when white people don't eat their food and participate in their parties, so all of us missionaries ended going up (except willis and bryce, they were getting water at the time, but they were able to film it all) so we go up, and the girl who picked me was called up first, so we stand in the center of the floor, she gives me these things (you hold them, and they have this colored stuff coming off them, and she was waving them when she was dancing earlier) she's like use these. so i did, and i'm just standing there waving them, and she's like shake your hips!  So I shook them.  Like Shakira. My hips don't lie.  then the other missionaries went, it was sooooo funny, and on heiners turn i was laughing so hard I was crying, and then at the end everyone was up just dancing, it was pretty hilarious.

I can't write more at this time, though i wish I could,  there's a lot of spiritual stuff i wish i had time to share.

BUT next week, I'll be on from 10:00-11:00 I think, and i should have the full hour!!

I love you all, write me, I'll write back :)