Baptism back-story and a bunch of other stuff...

Monday, June 25, 2012

 

Another week!  I'm about to give up on trying to understand the way time feels.  This week has been insanely long, and yet I feel like I was just here emailing a few minutes ago. 

 

 

SOOOOO, my previous companion, Elder P, is now in New Zealand!  pretty crazy!  The night he left, President and Sister Weaver took us both out to get a milkshake and talk, it was pretty fun.  That night I got my new companion up here, his name is Elder S, he's one transfer older than me.  He's my third companion this transfer, which is pretty crazy- but its nothing compared to HIS transfer.  I'm his SIXTH companion this transfer alone, and this is his THIRD area this transfer.  He's obedient and hardworking, so we are getting a lot of stuff done which I love, even though our personalities are different. 

 

 

We've been realllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyy busy, but some cool stuff has happened.  I'll try and remember some of it to tell you :)  First of all, I dont remember if I ever really told you about Jenny and Spud and Kimmy?  we've been meeting with them, Jenny's life is so crazy.    This past week though, we finally had the chance to sit down and teach her the first lesson.  It went pretty well, It was my first time teaching with Elder S, but it wasn't too bad.  So afterwards, I'm talking to her kids, Spud and Kimmy, kinda distracting them so that Elder S and Jenny can have a grown up conversation, and for whatever reason, Jenny was then just ready to open up.  She cried for awhile, and S listened to her life.  She was out of town this weekend, but she wants to come next Sunday, and we have plans to show her the church on Tuesday, while Spud rides bikes with the Scouts.  we're way excited!  The thing I just dont know how to communicate to you back home is how much I love her and her little family.  I just can't explain it right, but there is something really really special about being able to share the gospel with someone who needs it so much.  It's pretty darn humbling. 

 

 

Oh, remember when I told you about Desiree's baptism, and that one guy who was gonna interrupt me with that anti-Mormon stuff, but didn't?  I was talking to Bishop, and I heard the rest of the story.  While I was giving the missionary message thing right after the baptism, Bishop says he was trying to talk and stuff, and he kept like jerking his hand and stuff, but he couldn't raise it or move his arms really.  Bishop says it was the first time in his whole life that he has ever seen the spirit physically restrain someone.  Afterwards, Bishop went up to him and said "you didn't ask your questions"  and the guy didn't say anything, and bishop told him (cuz at this point, all the missionaries in our district are in a circle talking and stuff) that if he wanted to, he could go over to us right now still and ask his questions, and he said, "it just doesn't feel right anymore." Pretty cool.  :)

 

 

Oh, we had our bike day, it was pretty fun.  by which I mean, kinda fun, but mainly really really really hard because my bike didnt work.  My companion is like at the top of the hill, I'm like 1/4 of the way up, just chugging along, saying "I think I can, I think I can I think I can..."  You could tell I was struggling, and it was a hot day.  Fortunately, some gentlemen passing by in their cars took it upon themselves to cool me down with their saliva, so that was thoughtful!  And I always thought that people didnt like us :)  

Clearly not so!  I'm pretty sure they're looking out for us.  For example, one guy informed me that Joseph Smith was a liar and a polygamist, so that's good to know!  

 

 

Oh yeah, so we were biking past the church, and we saw like 10 skaters in the church parking lot.  Elder S was like "Elder, they aren't supposed to be there...."  I laughed at him, and biked over to them.  I talked to them about skating for a few minutes, then invited them to come inside and check out the church!  4 of them did, and 2 of them are open to meeting with us again, and learning more.  So that was fun :)

 

 

Well, I'm tired of emailing, even though as usual, I haven't told you 1/10 of 1% of what happens in the week, for which I apologize.  but just so you know, life is good.  sometimes kinda hard, but it's good.  My mission is everything to me, I'm so grateful to be out here.  One thing I thought about a lot on Sunday, was that if I didn't go on a mission, I would never understand exactly what I was missing out on.  There's just no adequate way to tell someone what it's really like, and why it is so important.  But because I'm out here, I do know, and I know I wouldn't trade my opportunity to serve in the WATAC (Washington Tacoma Mission) for 2 years for anything, there is no where I'd rather be, and nothing I could be doing that would be more important.  A returned missionary gave a talk in Sacrament meeting a week or two ago, and was urging all the young men to go on missions as well.  To the young men who were still debating, I thought he put it well.  He said, "don't put a question mark where a prophet of God has put a period."  Amen to that.

 

 

Father's Day, Fruitland, and an anti-Mormon grandpa

June 18, 2012

First of all, Happy Father's Day!!!!!!!  It's too bad we don't get to call home on Father's Day, but I was still thinking of you Dad!  I have a letter for you I'll try and get out today.  Clearly I'm not a sister missionary, because then I would have had the foresight to write it a week ago, and send it a week ago, so it would actually arrive before Father's day... Oh well!  But I love you sooooooooo much Dad :)

Thanks so much for praying for me,  you probably don't realize how much it really does help out here.  This week has been a LOT better than last week.

Fruitland is a tougher area than Manette!  Tracting is so discouraging, everyone out here is so.... content.  I found a hidden trailer park the other day though :)  <3  I love trailer parks.  Within which, I found a family!!!!!!!! not much as happened with them so far, but I'll keep you guys updated. 
Our Ward Mission Leader is insane.  I've never met a better one.  And our bishop is so cool! Bishop Daybell is AMAZING, I want to do my callings like him when I grow up.  I respect him so much, and I know he loves us missionaries so much, and that is so crucial to missionary/ward relations.  So it's gonna be good.  I struggle with working with wards/members, because they frustrate me, but I'm going to try really hard for Bishop.  And out here in Fruitland, (as i'm sure it is in carlsbad) missionaries really can't succeed WITHOUT member help.

 

This week we had a BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!  The story leading up to it was pretty funny, but I don't really know how to get into the details of all that...  Anyways, the girl's name is Desiree.    She'd been wanting to be baptized for a long time actually, but had to wait until her 18th birthday.  What I didn't know until just a few days before the baptism actually, is that she still hadn't had half the lessons    So I got to give her both those, which was pretty fun for me, and I got to know her pretty well, so it didn't feel at all like a strangers baptism.   The baptism itself was incredible.  She'd been coming to church for so long that there was a ton of ward support there.  Also, pretty cool story behind the way the service played out.  One reason why the baptism kept getting postponed is because her grandpa (who is very very very much against the church) wanted to be there, so he could pass out anti-mormon stuff.  So he was there, and right before I got up to give the "missionary message" thing, he told the bishop that he was going to interrupt me, and give his anti-mormon shpiel, and try to ask me questions to make the church look bad and stuff.  The Bishop told him he could... haha, and didn't warn me.

Even without knowing that though, I was pretty nervous, because our Mission President decided to show up to our baptism, and he was sitting in the back.  So I get up there and start talking, and I teach about the restoration. The Grandpa doesn't say or do anything.  (I didn't know he was planning on it)  It was really spiritual, and then afterwards I just go sit down and the baptism service finishes up.  The Bishop comes and pulls Pres. Weaver and me aside, and tells us what the Grandpa was planning on doing, but didn't, because I guess he felt the spirit.  :)  way cool :)

OH, other news, on Friday I was on an exchange with the Manorwood missionaries, so I was on bike for the day.  It was a pretty fun day, but INCREDIBLY hard.  We biked 15+ miles, and my temporary companion beat me into the ground so hard.  today is the first day since then it doesn't hurt to walk, haha.  Anyways, the day is wrapping up, and we're biking over to our dinner appointment (they got us pizza.  <3)  and we get a call from President Weaver.  Our conversation goes a little something like this:

Weaver:  Hello Elder Lonas, How are you doing?

Lonas:  I'm doing great President, how are you?

W: Great, Great...  Well Lonas, Sis. Weaver and I want you to know that we think you are a great missionary, and we really love you..

L: Oh my goodness, what's going to happen?? (spoken with about 10% melodrama)

W:  I'm so sorry Lonas... But Elder Ps paperwork all went through, and it looks like he'll be going to New Zealand on Tuesday....

L:  AAHHHH, WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY LIFE???  (Full blown drama queen) 

W:  I understand how you must feel... We are going to do our very best to figure out what will happen...

 (Elder P, his current companion, was in Washington only until his visa came through, but assumed he would stay the whole six-week "transfer" period.  Chase was unexpectedly transferred to this area and given this new companion just last week)

Conversation goes on for a few more minutes.  But basically, he has no idea what's going to happen to me.  He still isn't sure, and Elder P has to leave for the Mission Home tonight, hahaha.  So I might get a new companion (which would be my 3rd this transfer) or I might go join the Manorwood Missionaries, in which case I'd have 4 comps this transfer, and 11 total.  hahaha. 

Fortunately Pres. Weaver seems to like me, otherwise I probably wouldn't have gotten away with being a drama queen like that. haha

I got off the phone with Sis. Weaver just before I started emailing, They want to take me and Palmer out to dessert tonight, so that should be fun!

So, I have no
(and that really was the end of the email.  I kept hoping I'd get a "part 2" later on, but no such luck...)

First week in Puyallup/Fruitland

New Address =

 

10709 Woodland Ave E

Puyallup, WA

98373

 

Sorry if I never respond to something that was sent to Manette.  There's a chance I'll get it in the future (theoretically, missionaries would forward it to me, or just hand it to me on transfers (which would be July 4th anyways)  but statistically speaking, they will just throw it away, or open and read it, then throw it away haha)

 

Its been a pretty crazy week here in Fruitland. 

 

By the way, I don't know if you know about this site or not, but this is Sister Weavers mission blog http://thebeautifulwa-tac.blogspot.com/

There aren't a ton, but there are some pictures of me if you go through a few pages of them.

 

Fruitland is really different!  For one thing, it's approximately 100000000000 times richer than Manette.  Here's something pretty funny I've noticed.  When ever I was talking to people (usually members) about how I was gonna get transferred, or how I just transferred, and they'd ask where I was or where I was going, I realized how differently members and missionaries look at areas.  I'd tell them I was from Bremerton and people just make these faces like "Oh boy, I bet you're grateful you left that dump!"  or I'd say I'm going to Puyallup and people are like "Oh, you are so lucky, what a nice area!" 

And missionaries are the EXACT opposite.  I've only met about 2 or 3 ghetto people since I've gotten here, and honestly, they're the people I'm most comfortable talking to/ and teaching.  I miss the ghetto so much.  People out here live in houses and stuff, it's barely even worth knocking.  there are only 3 apartment complexes, and Elders P and W (the guy who was here before me) knocked those out just before I came, So I have to wait awhile :(    

 

Oh, here's something cool-  So, remember my trainer Elder K  He served in Fruitland about 6-9 months ago, so I was asking him if there were any people I should go see, and told me to call Sally.  It's a good thing I did, because as it turns out, she doesn't answer the door for missionaries, because if they knock she knows they "aren't her boys"  but if they call her, she knows they already know her, so she invites them over.  I don't know if that made sense.  But Elder K was here teaching her awhile ago, and actually her and her daughter almost got baptized, and then a lot of chaos broke loose just before baptism day, and then Elder K got transferred a few days later.  So we call her up, and she was like "I was wondering when you guys would call!"  and she tells me all about how Elder K and his companion at the time found her, and she's like "Oh your K...'s boy? come on over!"  So we do, and now we're teaching them again!  Life is full of miracles.

 

Speaking of which, we were tracting on Saturday, and the FIRST DOOR WE KNOCK ON, this nice lady comes out and starts talking to us, just really friendly, and we talk for maybe 5-10 minutes, and I'm just about to invite her to come down to the church, when her boy Spud pops his head out, and wants us to come in so he can show us his Spiderman stuff :)  So we come in, and just get to know her, her son, and pretty much her life story.  She loves us, and wants us to come back on Tuesday :)  She has had some bad experiences with religion in the past so if we had just gone in there with a standard door approach, we would have been politely shut down.  But we didn't, we got to know her, and that's what its all about.  Her name is Jennie by the way, I'll keep you updated on her later.

 

Other side notes:  We live next to some members, in an attic above their garage.  I'm pretty fond of the set up, we have a lot of the advantages of both an apartment, and with members, and we avoid some of the disadvantages of both as well. 

Our Ward Mission Leader is the most legit I've ever seen, I'm gonna love him, and the bishop here is crazy awesome too I heard, but I don't know him much yet. 

 

Oh, and I love Samoans.  There are some tight Samoan family's here, they are trying to teach me how to speak it and stuff haha. 

 

Well... thats it for now.  oh, and I'm gonna try and write today!

 

Love you!

ET from Bremerton to Puyallup

Oh man... life is insane!  I can never remember what I remember to talk about, and how much if it just never gets across to you back home, but hopefully I've remembered to communicate to you a little bit about how much I love Manette.   

Manette is where I feel like I really became a missionary.  Manette is where I've made the best friends I have on my mission, and I've met people who I know I'll be friends with forever.  Because of Manette, I have a testimony that I was not only called by God to serve in the WATAC, but also in my individual area.  I know I was sent to Manette for a reason.  Manette is possibly the most unique ward (from a missionary standpoint) in the mission.  I feel like my entire life up to my mission helped prepare me for the experiences I had in Manette.  Manette will ALWAYS be sacred ground to me.  Which is why I was pretty heartbroken to find out on Saturday that I had to be ET'd (emergency transferred).  

Don't worry, it wasn't me who did anything dumb.  Some missionaries in another zone entirely did something dumb, so all 4 of them had to leave the area, so that meant a lot of reshuffling had to happen.  I got sucked into it.  

 

        My new area is in Puyallup.  Fruitland is the name of my area/ward now.  It's going to be different here, in large part because of my companion.  His name is Elder P, and this is his second transfer.  I am VERY young to have a younger companion, so I'm pretty nervous.  Second transfer is your "follow up training" transfer, so I'm his follow up trainer (Like what Elder D was to me, if you remember that.)

 

 

  I am nervous and scared.  On the bright side, because of how much I learned in Manette, I feel like I'm going to be able to do this.  We had our first companionship study this morning ( for those being trained/follow up trained you actually have 2 full hours of comp study every morning)  and I realized how much I know now that I didn't know 2 transfers ago.  I was able to help him out a lot with his teaching and stuff, which I think was good for both of us!  Its funny how it works, I remember when I was being trained and stuff thinking I could never remember how to do it all, and all the different things you are supposed to incorporate into your teaching, and just how to do it, and now its just who I am and what I do.

 

        Leaving Manette was really really really sad and hard, but it was also really cool realizing how much had happened in just those 2 months I was there.  I couldn't believe how many people I loved who I had to say goodbye to.  All my friends in my district have been so good to me, and as we said goodbyes over the weekend, before I left Monday morning, I realized how close we all were now, which was what made it sad of course, but it also made me happy, just realizing how blessed I really am.  the whole Bremerton zone has my rap on CD now, so it was blasted all P day in tribute to me haha :)  I already miss them a ton, but now I get to make new friends I guess? 

 

Oh, my new comp, Elder P, was friends with Evan Angel back in Utah.  Who'd have thought?? small world haha.

 

Oh, you remember Pam???  we worked SO HARD with her, and bit by bit she began connecting the dots and just putting all the pieces together. On Sunday, she was BAPTIZED!  It was such an awesome experience, and the perfect way to leave my beautiful Manette.   She is such a funny, sweet old lady, I have a lot of stories about her in my journal, I'll have to read them to you after my mission :) 

 

Quick shout out to the Fry's, pretty much the coolest members in the Manette ward.  If it wasn't for them being so awesome, and willing to help, Pam wouldn't have been able to have been baptized this Sunday.  I'm gonna have to look for members as cool as them down in Fruitland, but I can't imagine anyone topping them.  I don't remember if I told you this or not, but Sister Fry is friends with Kelly Wardle! I saw her send her a message on facebook haha.  I heard they might go down to San Diego, so if you ever see them, make friends with them, they're legit.

 

hmm, so now I'm in a new area?  I really don't know too much about Fruitland so far, except its a lot bigger and richer than Manette :(  but that's ok, we'll still find people! 

 

Well, it looks like I have a brand new adventure ahead of me!  I'm way excited, and I'm gonna make stuff happen, which I'll do my best to tell you about!

 

Please forgive my lack of writing handwritten letters!  Heather, I have a letter for you which I wrote LAST P day, put in an envelope and addressed, all ready to send, but I don't have any stamps and haven't been able to get any.  I'm hopefully gonna be able to get some soon, or just borrow one from Elder P. 

 

Also, The library here in Fruitland opens earlier than the one in Manette did, so I should be able to get on earlier, and if possible, set up some kind of routine like I had in Lacey.  that should help with me writing better emails too. 

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!