Dear little world,
This has been the fastest transfer of my mission so far. I think I'm gonna start praying they slow down.
Missions are such a privilege.
I remember feeling like a mission was something I
could do for God. In reality, I don't think I've helped any one person
out more than I have helped myself. Don't get me wrong. Missions
aren't about yourself, they're about others. But as we focus on others,
we are the natural byproduct.
If every time we were to help someone get closer to
Christ, and have better lives, we were to arbitrarily say that we were
to have improved their lives by 10 degrees, I would say that we as
missionaries get a couple degrees closer as well. Maybe not as big a
step as someone who is being baptized, but a significant difference. If
we do that with a few thousand people... the sum total is greatly in
favor of others. But as far as which individual is benefited the most,
it would definitely be us. We are so so so so blessed to be
missionaries. (Mosiah 2:21-24)
If
Heavenly Father just wanted the job done right, I think he would just
have Holland and Bednar come do it all by themselves. But the wonderful
part of missionary work is that he has such silly people called to be
missionaries, so we can learn and grow.
This weekend Mary and Lars, along with Bill, were baptized and confirmed. Building schedule conflicts
and working with people's schedules made it kind of stressful - but at
their baptisms you can feel The Holy Spirit of Promise, testifying that
what is taking place is sacred and eternal. And nothing else matters :)
My friend Elder Christensen is getting transferred to Alaska. I suppose Heavenly Father wants him to baptize some Eskimos. (His two years are over, he's going home.)
I'll
be getting Elder A. I don't know a lot about him, but
apparently he's a good missionary, and a very hard worker. I think he's
a farm boy, so that'll be fun.
Keeping Elder S, but unfortunately I'll be
losing Elder H. He's a good missionary, and a way funny kid, I'm
gonna miss him. We will be getting a new boy too, so that'll be fun.
In the past couple of weeks we have been separating
the wheat from the tares a lot. I'm excited for the next couple weeks
where we can do a lot of finding! Finding people is so much fun.
So, I've become quite the culinary prodigy. I now make French toast, and spaghetti! (not together)
When
I make spaghetti, I add basil and tarragon. I have no idea why, but we
have them in little bottles in our cupboards, and it makes me feel like
an Italian chef.
Oooh! and Lonas has a new addiction! It's a game I
picked up from Elder F back in the blessed land of Bremerton, but never
really played it until this past week. I taught it to my boy
when we were having a long day of tracting towards the beginning of the
transfer, and he seemed a little bit discouraged. Unbeknownst to me, he
liked the game a lot and kept playing it by himself. And then he
showed it to Christensen, who later showed it to me again, haha. So now
we are all playing it!
It's called Book of Mormon Baseball. I'll try to explain the rules.
2
players each take turns. When one player is up at bat, the other is
pitching. The pitcher makes a noise with his mouth to indicate that he
is pitching, and immediately begins fanning through the Book of Mormon.
When the Batter says "Swing!" the Pitcher stops flipping through, and
opens up the book. If it's in the topical guide or intro or something,
the pitcher calls "Foul" and re pitches. If it's fair, he calls
"Clear!"
Followed by at which point in time the Batter calls
either Right Right, Right Left, Left Right, or Left Left (Indicating
Right or left page, and then right or left column)
In turn, the Pitcher will tell him which verse numbers are in the column.
I'll give a quick example of that part.
So lets say he calls swing, and the pitcher opens up to pages 372-373.
Pitcher says "Clear" and the Batter says Left right (so Left page, right column)
the Pitcher would then say "4 through 10" Because those are the
verses on the page (I just checked. I dont know that offhand hahaha)
the Batter will then pick a number. between 4 and 10. Let's say he picks 10, then the Pitcher will read verse 10.
The Batter can ask him to re-read it as many times
as desired. He has 3 guesses to guess which chapter of which Book it's
in. (So the Correct answer to our hypothetical round would have been
Helaman Chapter 3)
If he gets it right on his first guess, he gets 3 points. If he
gets it right on his 2 guess, he gets 2 points, if he gets it right on
his 3 guess, he gets 1 point. He can continue guessing indefinitely,
but if he misses it after that, he loses a point for every guess, and
can still only get 1 point for getting it right.
You can also use 1 or 2 of your guesses to narrow down the book. For example:
Is it in the Book of Alma?
-No (counts as 1 guess)
Is it in the Book of Helaman?
-Yes (counts as 2nd guess)
is it Helaman chapter 3?
Yes! (Batter receives 1 point, because he got it on 3rd guess)
So the first person to 21 points wins!
OK, now for advanced rules.
If, after the 1st or 2nd guess, the Batter misses, the pitcher can call "Tip!"
At
which point the Book of Mormon is handed to the Batter, the batter
flips through and the pitcher calls swing. (just like a normal turn)
except the Pitcher only has 1 guess to get it right. If he
succeeds, then Batter loses 3 points. If he fails, then the Batter
automatically gets however many points were still possible
(so
If the pitcher called tip after the first guess, and then failed, the
Batter would get 2 points, bc the batter had 2 guesses left)
Ok, Those are all the rules I can
think of off the top of my head. If you have any questions, let me know
and i'll clarify. It's WAY fun though after you do a couple rounds.
You learn a lot just by playing, because you're constantly being
tested, and then whenever you're wrong you can learn why really fast and
then keep going.
Lonas is currently undefeated :)
Guys,
I love my mission so much. I'm a little bit nervous for the new
transfer as usual, but I'm sure it will be good, Heavenly Father always
has such a great plan :) And I know he has a plan for each of us. He
really does.
-Lonas
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| Chase and his buddy Elder Christensen |
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