Tuesday, May 29, 2012

 

 

HEY! I'm wayyyyyyyyyy happy right now!  Missionaries love holidays that close the library on Monday, because then we can email on Tuesday, and not lose any P day time!  So... yeah, life is good.

 

     Transfer meeting happened!  Saying bye to Christensen was no fun at all, but fortunately we are still both in the WATAC, and we'll still see each other around! Who knows, maybe we'll be companions again, that's kinda like what happened with Elders W and K (my trainers)  After transfer meeting, it's tradition to go out to lunch with your old district/new district, so we all ate lunch at Round Table, and then we hugged goodbye :( 

But we'll still be friends. and then go back to BYU and jam for like a week straight.

 

     It's way weird this transfer (lingo refresher:  transfer = six week period), because its the first time I've been the one to stay in the area, and have someone new come.  So I'm the one who knows the area and investigators and everything.  It's good though!  Forces you to step up more, and progress as a missionary, and that's always good! 

 

     This transfer we have been working so hard, because the first week of a transfer makes the setting for the rest of the transfer.  So yeah, we are gonna make stuff happen.  Things have been looking really good!  Oh, and here is a highlight, I don't remember if i already told you, but Elder Lopez speaks Spanish!  So we have been teaching some Spanish people!  

 

     At church this Sunday, a Miracle showed up, by the name of Juan, and after church, we gave him a church tour, and he was like "So what do I have to do to get baptized?? Is it hard??"  Haha so cool!  We are going to start teaching him this week,  I can't wait!  It will mostly be in Spanish, but afterwards Elder Lopez can tell me if it was good or not.  haha.

 

     Remember Pam?  I can never remember what I've already told you... haha.  Our past two lessons she's been connecting all these dots and it's really cool to watch.  Also kind of frustrating sometimes, because it's slow progress, but so worth it!

 

     Remember like a month and a half ago when Christensen and I met Joe and Karen? (we like pushed a couch up onto a balcony for them?)  and then they dropped off the face of the earth?  Well, they are separated right now, but we got back in contact with Karen, she came on a church tour, wants to be baptized, and was at church this Sunday. :)   Unfortunately, her work schedule made her leave right after sacrament meeting, so she didn't get to meet many people, and she works really long hours  Monday through Friday, so we have to wait til Saturday to see her again.  quite unfortunate.

 

     Well, I'm gonna send this, because then if you are still on I can email you for a minute or two!  Love you lots!

Elder Chase Lonas

A new peak :)

Monday, May 21,2012

 

Ah, today is so beautiful.  :)  Well, actually its the first rainy p-day we've had in like a month,  but something about today is just reallllyyyy good!  :) 

This week had some really rough disappointments, which would bum me out if I were to talk about them at the moment.  Suffice it to say that there was no baptism on the 19th :( 

 

 

BUT MY FAVORITE LITTLE SISTER DID TURN 16!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Birthday !!!!!!!!!!! I love you to death, and I wrote you a letter about a week ago... hopefully I get stamps today!!!  P days in Manette are just so disorganized, I really need to figure out some kind of way to get stuff done on them haha.

 

 

Oh speaking of Manette, (not really, but it just triggered my memory for some reason)  we had transfer calls this Saturday!  I'm staying in Manette, but Elder C is getting transferred to Lacey haha!  I'm really gonna miss him, but I'm not gonna think about it til Tuesday.  

 

 

The new District Leader here in Manette will be Elder L!  I dont know too much about him, but next week i'll let you all know what I think!  One cool thing though is that he speaks Spanish, so we can teach Spanish people!  No more sign language when I'm talking to hispanics :)  

 

 

As far as the rest of the zone goes,  All the Bremerton Sisters are staying hahah!  Womanette is still Sisters G & V and Sisterdale is still Sisters N and P.  hooray!  We are all way excited for another awesome transfer!  (To a missionary "transfer" is not just a verb... it's also a noun meaning "the next 6 weeks".)
Getting transfer calls was pretty funny, because they came during our weekly missionary movie night, where we all bring investigators too and stuff, and so we all kept running out of the room and stuff whenever our phones went off.

 

 

Hmmm... Oh! My buddy Sister N got way sick this week :(  It was really sad, but Elder C and I were able to go out and give her a blessing, so that was good!  We also gave her some good get well presents from the dollar store on the way out there, and I'm pretty sure that helped too.  She's all better now.

 

 

Oh!  I finished my WATAC (what they call the Washington Tacoma mission) rap this morning, so hopefully I'll be able to record that today, but it will be tricky, Lil Krees and Nano have to finish recording their song too, and p-day ends so fast, and Lil Krees leaves on Wednesday??  But if I can finish it today, I'll send it to you guys this week or something.  I hit a new peak this morning in terms of how aggressively I rap.  Should be good.  (Lil Krees and Nano are the "rap names" of his companion and another missionary.  Chase's rap name is "Bronas", in case anyone is interested....)

Hey!  Lonas here, and as usual I have no idea what to email about. 

Soooo, I dont remember if I already told you this, but we have movie nights on Saturday, so everyone in the district can bring investigators.  This one less active family in our area decided to come, and they brought Maria!  I don't remember if I told you about the first time I met this little girl, but it pretty much made my week.  She's like...4.. if I had to guess.  But anyways, she lives in this CRAZY house with a stressed out mother  but somehow, this little girl is just raising herself to be an angel.  She is soooo sweet and cute, and really funny and friendly!  so she sat by me, and played games with me during the whole movie haha.  she stole my nose a lot, and kept giving it to Sister N, haha.  She also progressed to stealing my eyes, ears, tongue, eyebrows, and legs.  I should ask for them back at some point.  She loves showing people her cute outfits, kinda how I might picture Emily when she was younger.  She also shows me her dresses, and tells me why they are cute.  I suspect she may be a little bit colorblind, but that doesn't really change how cute it is.

What else...

Oh, I also don't remember if we talked about this on Mother's Day, but we had both Evan and Fran come to church (both have scheduled to be baptized!)  and they both really enjoyed it :) 

Um, this last week we found this lady, Marylyn.  She is less active after a divorce, and has three children.  She is a really cool person, and had just been too scared to come to church in a long time, buuuuuuuut she made it this Sunday!  Next Sunday she said she is bringing her boyfriend, so that will be cool, and her kids want to go to primary :)

I feel really bad, I just have no clue how to email anymore.... hey, how about if you are still online, you email me some questions and I can answer them!

(answers to questions)

Our apartment is nice, just me and Elder C.  We have a washer and dryer, some weights, and big desks, so what more could we ask for.  :)

I get up at 6:30 in the morning!  it is not fun!  I thought you'd just get used to it, but I'm still not, and every morning its no fun.  But it's cool because by about 7:30 (when I'd be asleep back home) I'm wide awake!  So that's cool.


 For breakfast I usually have cereal.  Sometimes Sisterdale (the set of female missionaries) gives us their extra cereal (they live with members who give them tons of cereal)  and then I have free cinnamon toast crunch!  life is good.

Mornings generally involve just a lot of study.  from 8-9 we have personal study every morning, usually from the Book of Mormon and Bible and stuff, but I'm reading Jesus The Christ right now and loving it.  From 9-10 is companion study, which is similar but we tend to read out of Preach My Gospel.

For lunch I tend to have a lot of sandwiches haha.  umm.  and Little Caesars.  It's way good.

For dinner I usually heat up little Caesars or something.  Sometimes hot dogs.  The only specialty I'm developing is RAP. [He's not kidding.  On Mother's Day we had a chance to video chat for awhile.  He and his companion demonstrated their rapping skills.  They're a great combo and we heard several original, mission-centered, VERY entertaining songs. :) ]

Love you!

I'm way funnier now...

Mostly family stuff this week so not much to post.  But here are a few snippets:

 

P day (preparation day / non-working day - every Monday)) is going great, I don't know if I mentioned it to you, but I have a lot of friends and stuff here, so its pretty cool seeing them on P-day.  And I decided that I'm not a greeny (new missionary) anymore - because it's basically a state of mind.  So I'm way funnier now, and a lot of people like me.  :)  that makes P-days more fun. 

...

My heart is 100% in Manette, I don't ever want to leave. 

...

As far as food goes, the absolute best thing is when the members just offer to get us whatever we want.  haha.  It's only happened to me once so far, but its THE BEST.

... 

Darby..... Darby and we had a long counseling session this week - all centered around individual worth, being great in the sight of God, and tried to help her sort through so many issues.  She was truly humbled, and through sobs of tears, agreed to accept Jesus Christ as her Savior, and do whatever was necessary to follow Him.  One day later, on Sunday, she decided not to come to church.

 

How quickly they forget </3

 ...

Evan  is doing very well!   He makes way funny jokes all the time, but if you aren't paying attention, you miss it, because his condition has left him with more or less a monotone voice.  But he makes way good jokes if you are listening for them. :)  

.... 

 

Hey, quick shout out to Emily K.!  Thanks for writing me!  I sent a reply to your home address, but I don't have any idea when you'll actually get that, so I thought you might see this faster!  But thanks for writing me!!!!

 

Emailing and writing has just been really hard for me lately... So I'm done.  but I LOVE YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Show quoted text -

"If you don't live the gospel, you don't love it."

Alright,  the letters I started writing last p day still haven't been sent yet.... I just always feel like I have no time!  So I am really sorry for dropping the ball on that. I'm gonna try and be consistent with that again. 

Life is just so good to me.  I know without a doubt I am exactly where I'm supposed to be, exactly when I need to be, doing the things I need to be doing.  My mission is my whole life now, and everything before this feels like before I was born.  Feels like a blur, just feels like I've been out here forever.  Some days are rough.  Yesterday morning was the most frustrating day of my mission thus far, EVERYONE flaked out on us, no one kept a single commitment, and we lost some people, but I went to bed knowing that I did everything I could possibly do.  Doesn't make it easy, but it helps.

 

 

The idea of emailing home what happens each week is just so tiring.  I don't even know where to begin.  BUT I do have that new SD card, so I'm gonna send the old one home in the next day or so, and I'll send some stuff in this email today too hopefully.

 

There IS one guy I want to tell you about though, and that's Evan.  We met him tracting, and he was just smoking in a stairwell.  We started talking to him, and one of the first things we found out was that he had been in a pretty bad car accident a few years ago, and that left him pretty disabled, and a little bit slower mentally.  We also found out that before he moved to Manette, he had met with some missionaries before, and his friend had actually been baptized.  I just asked him straight up why he hadn't been baptized then, and he was like "oh, cuz I was baptized when I was younger" or something like that.  And I just felt like the best thing to do with Evan was to be really straight with him, so I just committed him to baptism right then, for May 13, and he accepted!  I taught him the Restoration the other day ( it was actually my first time teaching that by myself!)  and it went incredibly well!  He already has a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  He has trouble reading because of his eyes, but he discovered that when he reads the Book of Mormon he feels "enlightened" :)  so he is about 1/3 of the way through the book right now, he just opens it up, looks at each page for a little while, then turns to the next one :)  he is starting to choose reading the BoM over watching TV!  He came to a movie night put on by our district, and afterwards he bore a mini testimony about the gospel.  My favorite quote from him is "if you don't live the gospel, you don't love it"   This is a legit guy. 

We'll be teaching him the plan of salvation next, and I'm way excited!!!  

 

 

Darby......darby darby darby.... I can't handle actually filling you in on her entire story, I get too frustrated.  but to summarize, she has been wanting to go to church for a long time, but first she has been determined to get nice clothes.  A never ending series of complications prevents this from happening...  After finally giving up on members taking her to Salvation Army, I got really angry, and drove to Goodwill, where Elder C and I bought her clothes (sorry, I used the home account...)  and brought them to her.  (I picked out two cute outfits, and the Spirit led me to choose the correct undergarment sizes.  Really, I have no clue how I did it)  She then decided she needed makeup.  Womanette (the pair of women missionaries) gave her nice make up.  Then, Sunday morning, she decided not to go because..... 

 

 

I'm gonna try and send some pictures right now, to make up for the short email.